A 32-Year-Old Man Diagnosed with Type II Brugada Syndrome on Preoperative Electrocardiogram 1 Week Before Elective Tympanoplasty

BACKGROUND Brugada syndrome is a potentially fatal cardiac arrhythmia characterized by incomplete right bundle-branch block (RBB) and characteristic ST-segment elevation in the anterior electrocardiogram (ECG) leads. This report is of a case of type 2 Brugada syndrome, and discusses the importance of preoperative history and ECG evaluation. CASE REPORT A 32-year-old man was scheduled for tympanoplasty. His preoperative ECG revealed saddleback-type J waves in V₂ (>2 mm) and ST increase (>1 mm) detected 1 week before elective surgery, but the ECG 1 year before showed normal. He had no notable past history. Anesthesia was induced with remifentanil and propofol, and maintained with sevoflurane in combination with remifentanil. Routine monitoring of vital signs was supplemented with V2 monitoring on the ECG. The heart rate was maintained at above 60 beats/min using ephedrine. The course of the operation was uneventful. CONCLUSIONS We managed anesthesia for a patient with a type 2 Brugada syndrome ECG without events, probably because he had no notable past history such as syncope. Type 2 and type 3 Brugada syndrome ECGs are difficult to recognize, and patients with them are considered to be less risky than a patient with a type I ECG. However, as Brugada syndrome ECG is dynamic and changeable, a type 2 or 3 Brugada syndrome ECG can change to a type I ECG under some conditions, and thus should not be overlooked, and the patient's past history or symptoms, such as syncope, should be carefully investigated.