Anaesthesia of the Patient with Liver Disease

Patients with liver disease can require anaesthesia for a number of reasons- including feeding tube placement, liver biopsy, or management of biliary tract problems. However, the liver disease patient presents several unique problems when it comes to anaesthesia. Firstly, almost all of the anaesthetic drugs we commonly use and metabolised to some extent in the liver – and the rates of metabolism of these drugs can be altered significantly in the patient with liver disease. Secondly, some medications, such as the benzodiazepines, can cause significant central nervous system depression in the patient with hepatic encephalopathy, raising caution when using them for seizure control, for example. Add to that, that many patients with liver disease have coagulation disorders, and severe inflammation, which can result in intra-operative haemorrhage, hypovolaemia, and hypotension, and the anaesthetic can become a complicated undertaking. Join us for the FREE webinar, where we’ll examine how we can select appropriate anaesthetic protocols for patients with liver disease and hepatic encephalopathy; how to stabilise the patient, and how we can manage complications in a simple and effective manner to reduce risk to our patients.