RESUMEN
BACKGROUND: The surgical management of cutaneous metastasis (CM) is challenging, particularly in elderly patients, in whom general anesthesia can be difficult because of comorbidity. OBJECTIVES: To test the effectiveness of tumescent local anesthesia (TLA) to achieve adequate anesthesia during the treatment of extensive CM with electrochemotherapy (ECT), previously only performed under general anesthesia. METHODS: We conducted five ECT treatments of CM with intralesional bleomycin under TLA. We examined pain scores before, during, and after treatment; analgesic use; and side effects. The intention of the treatment was palliative in all cases. RESULTS: We treated four patients (ages 75-88) with CM with a mean area of 126 cm(2) (range 12-198 cm(2) ) with 356 mL of TLA per treatment (range 180-450 mL). The ECT treatment under TLA demonstrated that anesthesia was adequate, with moderate pain during and slight pain after the procedure as measured on a visual analog scale (VAS). CONCLUSIONS: In this proof-of-principle study, we demonstrated that ECT can be performed under TLA; TLA might be a useful new anesthesia option for patients treated with ECT.