Survivors of childhood cancers: implications for obstetric anaesthesia

Treatment of many childhood malignancies involves surgery, radiotherapy and chemotherapy. If the child survives, normal physical development can be im paired and abnormalities with, anaesthetic implications may be present. We discuss two women with a range of problems who presented for obstetric anae sthesia, having survived childhood malignancies. Common features included a nthracycline cardiotoxicity and short stature. Both patients received incre mental spinal anaesthesia in order to titrate the dose of local anaesthetic required to produce an adequate block height and to minimize cardiovascula r instability.