Cardiovascular and Airway Considerations in Mediastinal Mass During Thoracic Surgery

Mediastinal Masses have always posed as a nightmare even for the skilful anaesthesiologists. The compression effects, the proximity to major vascular and airway structures, the complex surgical approaches has altogether made both the diagnostic and therapeutic procedures a high risk event. The scenario is more troublesome if the patient is an infant or child. Here the anaesthesiologists has almost no information regarding ‘Position of airway rescue’ or ‘Position of maximum airway patency’ to which he can put the patient in case of any therapeutic misadventure arising out of compressive effect of the mediastinal mass on the airway and/or great vessels once the patient is induced or in the way of being induced for anaesthesia.