Anesthesia with etomidate and remifentanil for cesarean section in a patient with severe peripartum cardiomyopathy--a case report.

Patients with peripartum cardiomyopathy may require analgesia/anesthesia for delivery or cesarean section. Many different methods of anesthesia has been used for this purpose. Remifentanil was used safely in peripartum cardiomyopathic patients, but there is not any report about etomidate usage in such patients. We report on a 19 years old patient, at 32 weeks of gestation, with severe peripartum cardiomyopathy, in uncompensated heart failure and pulmonary edema. She was scheduled for emergency cesarean section becaue of threatening mother's life and fetal distress. General anesthesia was induced with etomidate and maintained with remifentanil infusion safely, without any adverse outcome on mother or newborn.