Anesthesia Management of a Premature Neonate with Congenital Heart Disease during Emergency Diaphragmatic Hernia Surgery: A Case Report

In this medical report, we successfully implemented anesthesia management for an infant with congenital heart disease undergoing congenital diaphragmatic hernia (CDH) repair. Left-sided CDH was diagnosed on a postnatal chest X-ray on day 1 of her life. The child was complicated with congenital heart diseases and pulmonary hypertension and showed severe dyspnea immediately after birth. Thoracoscopic CDH repair puts forward high requirements for anesthesia. Neonatal CDH combined with congenital heart disease brings more challenges to anesthesia. For high-risk premature neonates, anesthesia selections are essential, as those factors directly affect the prognosis. We report the application of S-ketamine as an anesthetic in this kind of operation for the first time. The postoperative recovery was uneventful. This case report reviews anesthesia management of critical CDH neonates, hoping to provide information to healthcare professionals unfamiliar with the treatment of this kind of patient.