Perioperative Management of Pheochromocytoma: Focus on Magnesium, Clevidipine, and Vasopressin

The perioperative management of pheochromocytomas requires meticulous anesthetic care. There has been considerable progress in its management, recently 3 agents that may be particularly advantageous to the anesthetic team have been identified. Magnesium sulfate is readily available, cheap, safe, and effective for hemodynamic control before tumor resection. It has demonstrated efficacy in adults, children, and in rarer scenarios, such as pheochromocytoma resection in pregnancy and in pheochromocytoma crises. Although only recently entering clinical practice, clevidipine exhibits a pharmacologic profile of great interest, showing efficacy in the management of hypertensive crisis and providing rapid titration and precise hemodynamic control. Its application in the perioperative management of pheochromocytoma before tumor resection recently has been described and likely will expand in the near future. Vasopressin has demonstrated utility in the management of catecholamine-resistant shock after tumor resection. A familiarity with these 3 agents offers anesthesia providers further effective pharmacologic options for managing the hemodynamic challenges inherent to this population before and after tumor resection.