Author: Michael A. Evans, MD – Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago, Northwestern Feinberg School of Medicine


A 6-year-old child with a medical history of idiopathic pulmonary arterial hypertension (IPAH) presents to the cardiac catheterization laboratory for a diagnostic cardiac catheterization to assess the clinical response to medical management. During the induction of anesthesia, the patient experiences a cardiac arrest and is placed on extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO). What is the MOST LIKELY probability of cardiac arrest in a patient with IPAH having a diagnostic cardiac catheterization under general anesthesia?