[Anesthetic management of a morbidly obese patient with mental retardation].

We report successful anesthetic management of a morbidly obese patient with mental retardation employing inhalation induction with sevoflurane in sitting position and epidural catheterization using ultrasound sonography. Inhalation induction with sevoflurane keeps spontaneous respiration and induction in sitting position may provide a greater margin of safety for airway control. Therefore, this method of induction is useful for morbidly obese patient. Regional anesthesia in an obese patient can be technically challenging because of difficulties in identifying the useful body landmarks. We successfully used ultrasound sonography to identify spinous process and could insert an epidural catheter at the right place.