Perioperative Serotonin Syndrome Manifesting as Gastrocnemius Myofasciculations: A Case Report

ABSTRACT

In perioperative settings where a patient under general anesthesia, presentation of serotonin syndrome might be far from the “classical” description of this potentially fatal condition. A patient who manifested signs of serotonin toxicity during an intravenous anesthetic, remifentanil, is presented. At the time of surgery, the patient was being treated with tramadol for pain management. The patient displayed myofasciculations on both gastrocnemius muscles confirmed electromyographically. All other conventional signs of serotonin syndrome were absent except hypotension and nystagmus. A presumptive diagnosis of serotonin syndrome was made intraoperatively. The symptoms resolved once remifentanil infusion was discontinued in the operating room without incident. Mild-to-moderate perioperative serotonin syndrome may manifest with myofasciculations in gastrocnemius muscles in the settings of no neuromuscular blockade. In spinal surgeries involving intraoperative EMG monitoring, the neuromonitoring team should be aware of this presentation and include serotonin syndrome in the differential diagnosis of unexplained EMG activity.

KEY WORDS:

• Myofasciculations
• perioperative
• remifentanil
• serotonin syndrome
• tramadol

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.