Hyperpyrexia and Anaesthesia

A recent fatality associated with anaesthesia displayed stuch remarkable features that it was thought useful to publish a short account of it.Case Report The patient, a girl of 13, was subjected to operation for recurrent dislocation of the patella.No abnormality was found on physical examination.Premedication consisted of morphine, * gr.(8 mg.), and atropine, 1/100 gr.(0.65 mg.), given, as it happened, two hours before induction of anaes- thesia.In the anaesthetic room the patient was perhaps (in retrospect) a little flushed, but seemed otherwise normal.Anaesthesia was induced smoothly with 0.4 g. sodium thiopentone, and continued with N20 (5 litres a minute), 02 (1.5 litres a minute), and minimal trichlorethylene (" trilene "), using Boyle's semiclosed circuit.A tourniquet was applied to the affected leg and the patient was taken into the theatre.It is regrettable, in view of what ensued, that no detailed records were made of pulse rate, blood pressure, etc., but this was regarded as a minor routine case.