Anesthetic management in pediatric cardiac catheterization

Abstract

Cardiac catheterization is required in patients with congenital heart disease for hemodynamic assessment or anatomical definition. The goals of anesthetic management during cardiac catheterization are adequate analgesia, sedation, immobility, and hemodynamic stability. Movement may decrease the quality of angiography, may increase the radiation exposure, and the risk of vascular trauma. The anesthesiologist's role during diagnostic catheterization is to provide care so that the patient emergences from the procedure with minimal psychological or physiological trauma. Many anesthetic techniques and drugs have been described for these procedures, but there is no ideal anesthetic technique in children undergoing cardiac catheterization. Further controlled studies are needed to make standardization. In this review, we discussed analgesic and anesthetic regimens used during pediatric cardiac catheterization in the light of the literature.