Anesthetic management of patients with Takayasu's arteritis: A case seriesand review

Takayasu's arteritis is a rare, chronic progressive panendarteritis involvi ng the aorta and its main branches. Anesthesia for patients with Takayasu's arteritis is complicated by their severe uncontrolled hypertension, end-or gan dysfunction resulting from hypertension, stenosis of major blood vessel s affecting regional circulation, and difficulties encountered in monitorin g arterial blood pressure. Takayasu's arteritis is an uncommon disease and previous descriptions of the anesthetic management of patients with this di sease have been limited to isolated case reports in the anesthetic literatu re, mostly in women undergomg cesarean delivery. We present our experience in this series of eight patients for various emergency and elective surgica l procedures and review their perioperative problems and management.