Surgery as a Recurrent Trigger for Immune Thrombocytopenia (ITP) in a Patient Cured of M7 Acute Myelogenous Leukemia.

We report the case of a 10-year-old boy, 8 years post-M7 acute myeloid leukemia with a history of significant thrombocytopenia and bleeding, requiring treatment, after 2 surgical procedures performed under general anesthesia. In both instances, the thrombocytopenia and bleeding responded to intravenous immunoglobulin treatment. Between surgeries, the platelet counts were normal. Before a third surgical procedure, he was successfully pretreated with dexamethasone and experienced no bleeding or thrombocytopenia after the operation. This case highlights the potential utility of corticosteroid pretreatment in patients with a history of immune thrombocytopenia before surgical procedures under general anesthesia.