ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Maternal vascular anomalies, potentially severe for the fetus, can jeopardize uterine perfusion, which demands more caution by the anesthesiology team. The objective of this report was to demonstrate the anesthetic conduct for a cesarean section on a pregnant woman with hipoplasia of the distal aorta, just below the renal arteries, with stenosis of the renal artery and absence of the iliac arteries. CASE REPORT: This is a 30-year old patient, weighing 54 kg, on her second pregnancy, with a history of an uncomplicated cesarean section. During the gestational echocardiography on the 12th week, it was observed an interruption of the distal aorta, just below the renal arteries. The patient was referred for coronary angiography, which demonstrated hypoplasia of the distal aorta, just below the renal arteries, and absence of the iliac arteries. During the clinical investigation, the patient remained asymptomatic, except for hypertension and claudication during great efforts. She underwent continuous epidural anesthesia and the dose of the anesthetic was titrated as needed for the cesarean section. Initially, 50 mg of 0.5% bupivacaine without vasoconstrictor and 10 microg of sufentanil were administered. After 15 minutes, anesthesia was complemented with 25 mg of 0.5% bupivacaine, which was enough to achieve an adequate level of blockade. The cesarean section was performed without intercurrences, and the fetus was born in good clinical conditions. CONCLUSION: The use of continuous epidural block in fractionated doses demonstrated to be a safe anesthetic technique for this procedure because it reduces the risks of maternal hypotension, inherent to the spinal block, and also minimized the placentary transference of drugs, which is the case with general anesthesia. Titration of drugs through the epidural catheter allowed reaching an adequate anesthetic level for this type of surgery.