• Sudden onset of a hypertensive crisis occurred shortly after induction of anesthesia in a patient with malignant pheochromocytoma, despite preoperative medical preparation with α-methyltyrosine (α-methyl-p-tyrosine) and propranolol hydrochloride. Other investigators have advocated α-methyltyrosine as the medical therapy of choice in the preoperative preparation of patients with pheochromocytoma. This case emphasizes the caution that should be exercised when using α-methyltyrosine preoperatively, without concurrent α-adrenergic blocking agents, to prevent intraoperative hypertensive crisis.
(Arch Intern Med 1985;145:2114-2115)