Anesthetic challenges during repairing left pulmonary artery sling without cardiopulmonary bypass: a case report

Left pulmonary artery sling (LPAS) is a rare vascular anomaly. The general surgical technique to correct it is through median sternotomy under cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB). In this case, we discuss the anesthetic management of left pulmonary artery (LPA) reimplantation without CPB to improve the understanding and provide an overview for practitioners in managing patients with this rare vascular anomaly. Patient was a 10 months old baby, with main complaints of shortness of breath since he was 4 months old, and diagnosed with LPAS from cardiac multi-slice CT scan (MSCT) examination. Intraoperatively, when the LPA was clamped, the blood pressure decreased due to decreased preload, and the end-tidal CO2 increased to 70 mmHg due to increased dead space, which was successfully managed. Postoperatively, the patient suffered from ventilator acquired pneumonia (VAP). Evaluating and assessing the potential complications that can occur during the perioperative period will help prepare for management and improve the success of anesthetic management.