Anesthetic management of a pregnant patient with an automatic implantable cardioverter-defibrillator: a case report.

There is little data currently available for the obstetric anesthetist to use as a reference for the anesthetic management of laboring women with automatic implantable cardioverter-defibrillators (AICDs). This case report involves a parturient with an AICD and a history of serious cardiac events. The information contained in this case report may be used by anesthesia providers in the obstetric suite confronted with this unique subset of patients that require in-depth anesthetic management. The parturient presented to our labor suite in active labor. The choice of anesthetics used to provide her with analgesia for labor is described, including the rationale for this anesthetic plan. A review of the literature that contains information on safe and effective anesthesia used for laboring women with AICDs is described.