3D Virtual Bronchoscopy as an Aid to Airway Management in a Patient with Anterior Mediastinal Mass
Divya Arora, Prabhat Tewari, Chetna Shamshery, Bipin Chandra, Archna Gupta, Lily Pal- Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine
- Cardiology and Cardiovascular Medicine
- General Medicine
ABSTRACT
Mediastinal masses pose one of the great challenges for any anesthesiologist during airway maintenance, underlining the need to devise a well-formulated plan to avoid perioperative complications. As a general rule, such patients are managed with spontaneous ventilation without the use of muscle relaxants and awake intubation. We report a case of a 66-year-old male with severe dyspnea, having a very large invasive anterior mediastinal mass, causing left lung collapse for urgent debulking surgery. The tracheobronchial compromise was ruled out using three-dimensional reconstruction on computed tomography imaging (virtual bronchoscopy) and that helped in using general anesthesia with muscle relaxation for subsequent endotracheal intubation and surgery.