Anaesthetic Management of a Peripartum Cardiomyopathy Patient undergoing Caesarean Section

Peripartum Cardiomyopathy (PPCM), is an uncommon form of heart failure that occurs during the last month of pregnancy or upto five months after delivery. In this condition, the heart chamber enlarges and the muscle weakens. This case report is about a 30-year-old primigravida, with oligohydramnios, at 32.3 weeks of gestation. She visited for a caesarean section, and was diagnosed with PPCM on the basis of clinical findings of growing fatigability, troubled breathing and severe dyspnoea and on echocardiography ejection fraction of 64% with mild mitral regurgitation, moderate dilated left ventricle, tricuspid regurgitation was found. These patients require vigilant anaesthetic intervention for management of painless labour and/or either vaginal or operative delivery. The basic haemodynamic goals should always be kept in mind for favorable maternal as well as foetal outcome while selecting the drug dose and mode of anaesthesia. Various studies showed that both general and regional anaesthesia can be used with comparable outcomes in PPCM patients undergoing caesarean section. The index patient, who needed a caesarean section, was managed with Combined Spinal-Epidural (CSE) anaesthesia, weighing the risk of increase mortality due to general anaesthesia