Caesarean section following the Fontan procedure: Two different deliveries and different anaesthetic choices in the same patient

Abstract

The Fontan procedure is performed for patients with a hypoplastic right ventricle, and pregnancies following this palliative surgery are likely to increase. We present a parturient with the Fontan physiology who successfully underwent two consecutive caesarean deliveries; the first under general anaesthesia for emergency surgery and the second under regional anaesthesia for elective surgery. We suggest that pregnancy and delivery do not typically adversely affect maternal cardiac status in these patients. Attention must be paid, however, to fetal loss, prematurity, growth retardation and associated cardiac congenital malformations for which insufficient data exist in the literature in this patient population. © 2005 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.