[Anesthesia for vertebral osteoclasis in a patient with severe predominantly cervical spondylitis ankylopoietica].

We present a patient suffering severe, mainly cervical, ankylopoietic spondylitis who was scheduled for posterior vertebral osteoclasis under local anesthesia. We describe handling of anesthesia, particularly airway control by flexible bronchoscopy in an awake, locally anesthetized patient sedated with benzodiazepines and inhalational anesthetics as compared with other alternatives: an awake patient who is not intubated, under local anesthesia and sedated with narcotics and gaseous anesthetics, or a patient under general anesthesia with placement of a flexible bronchoscope and neurological monitoring by evoked potentials. The surgical technique was Simmons' posterior vertebral osteoclasis, with the column extended and immobilized with wire.