Malignant hyperthermia in a patient with sickle cell anemia.

A sixteen-year-old male with sickle cell anemia and congenital strabismus developed malignant hyperthermia a few minutes after the administration of succinylcholine, used as the general anesthetic for corrective eye surgery. The patient's hemoglobin S level was reduced to fifteen percent before the operation. He recovered uneventfully within a few hours. Increased serum creatinine phosphokinase activity and pathological changes observed in the muscle biopsy along with strabismus suggest that the patient had an inherited susceptibility to malignant hyperthermia.