Cervical epidural anesthesia for sub-total thyroidectomy in a patient with aortic incompetence.

Cervical Epidural anesthesia has been employed successfully forvanous types of surgical procedures involving the head and neck and the upper extremities and has been shown to be a safe and effective anesthetic modality. This, however, is the first reported case of thyroidectomy being performed under cervical epidural anesthesia. The biggest advantage to be gained from employing this technique lies in the avoidance of potentially arrhythmogenic inhalational anesthetics along with concomitant myocardial depression, as well as the problems associated with mechanical ventilation. The safety of cervical epidural procedures has been established by several studies. In modem practice, the cervical epidural space is accessed most commonly for pain management procedures and hence the biggest bodies of data on this subject are to be found in pain management literature.