How a hidden genetic mutation creates a severe pediatric anesthesia risk
Imagine a healthy eight-year-old boy going under general anesthesia for a routine procedure. His preanesthetic workup is unremarkable. His family history raises no flags. He receives sevoflurane, the most commonly used inhaled anesthetic in pediatric practice worldwide, and he does not wake up the same.
This is not a theoretical scenario. It has happened to families of Venezuelan ancestry on multiple continents, across multiple decades, and no one connected the dots. …
How a hidden genetic mutation creates a severe pediatric anesthesia risk
