Exaggerated Hemodynamic Responses to Nasal Injection and Awakening From Anesthesia in a Cushingoid Patient Having Transsphenoidal Hypophysectomy

A 51-year-old female patient, with an adrenocorticotrophic hormone-secreting pituitary tumor, was scheduled for transphenoidal hypophysectomy. She had a history of recent onset diabetes mellitus and a 2-year history of arterial hypertension. Despite ongoing medical therapy, preoperative blood pressure was 150-160/90-120 mm Hg. During general anesthesia, in response to perinasal infiltration with 10 ml of a solution containing lidocaine 200 mg and epinephrine 100 microg, blood pressure increased from 144/80 mm Hg to 317/175 over 3 minutes, as assessed by direct blood pressure monitoring. At the completion of the anesthetic, as the patient awakened and coughed and moved, blood pressure again increased dramatically, this time from 154/87 mm Hg to 285/170 over 3 minutes. Five months postoperatively, the patient's serum cortisol concentrations had normalized and her cuff blood pressure was 126/82, despite a reduction in her antihypertensive medications. The dramatic intraoperative blood pressure changes in this patient were attributed to the effects of hypercortisolemia on the normal physiologic responses to epinephrine and patient movement.