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Clifford Gevirtz, MD, MPH
Albert Einstein College of Medicine The National Registry of Anesthesia Complications Bronx, NY

JAMA. 1989;261(23):3407.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text PDF and any section headings.

To the Editor.—

I wish to register my strong disagreement with your consultants Drs Hirshman and Lindeman¹ and their assertion that it is safe to administer an elective anesthetic to a patient receiving monoamine oxidase inhibitors.¹ I believe that theirs is a minority viewpoint. An informal telephone survey of 60 board-certified anesthesiologists attending the Postgraduate Assembly in Anesthesia in New York, NY, on December 15 revealed that only 8 (13.3%) would administer an anesthetic in the case described. Of those who answered affirmatively, all stated that they would perform invasive blood pressure monitoring before proceeding. Several major textbooks^2-4 and the Physicians' Desk Reference⁵ all emphasize the need to discontinue monoamine exidase inhibitors for 2 weeks prior to the administration of an anesthetic. There have been no published case reports using alfentanil or sufentanil in patients receiving monoamine oxidase inhibitors. At the very least, a fully informed . . . [Full Text PDF of this Article]

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