[Esmolol to control hemodynamic response during removal of a bilateral pheochromocytoma from a 10-year-old girl].

Pheochromocytomas, which derive from chromaffin cells, can secrete catecholamines in large amounts. The incidence of these tumors is low at 2 to 8 cases per million population and only 10% of cases occur in children. A thorough understanding of the pathophysiology of these tumors and the consequent effect of drugs will be necessary for treating these patients during the perioperative period. A great deal has been published on drugs that can be used in this setting, but only a small portion of the information is relevant to children. Esmolol, a short-action beta-blocker, figures among the drugs that have been developed in recent years. We report a case in which esmolol was used during surgery in a 10-year-old girl undergoing scheduled removal of a bilateral pheochromocytoma.