spinal anaesthesia in a patient with huntington’s disease – a case report

Background. Huntington’s disease is a rare (estimated frequency of 1:10,000–15,000) autosomal dominant neurodegenerative disease. Anaesthetic experience with these patients is limited.

Case description. A case of spinal anaesthesia of 62-year-old man with progressed stage of Huntington’s disease is described. An operation was made because of subtrochanteric fracture of the right femur. Spinal anaesthesia was done briefly and without any technical problems (needle G25, 3 ml of 0.5% isobaric bupivacain). So the choreatic movements of the legs were interrupted, and the movements of the upper part of the body with droperidol 2.5 mg intravenously. The surgical conditions were optimal. The operation was conducted without complications and finished within 90 minutes. The postoperative period was without any special problems.

Conclusions. We would like to contribute our part to the anaesthetic experience in patients with Huntington’s disease and to show that spinal anaesthesia is suitable and safe also for procedure longer than one our.