Malignant hyperthermia muscle biopsy: Surgery - related information
It is essential that we do your malignant hyperthermia muscle biopsy not only for the sake of diagnosis of malignant hyperthermia but to be safe in terms of the surgery.
To have the appropriate muscle biopsy for testing for malignant hyperthermia a small piece of muscle (2 x 4 cm) it taken from your left inner thigh from the vastus medialis obliquus muscle.
This is done through incision of approximately 3 to 4 cm in length on the inner thigh under anaesthesia. The incision is closed with absorbable sutures under the skin and generally these sutures does not need to be removed. Some persons that are sensitive to the dissolvable sutures might need removal of the sutures on the ends of the wound at around two weeks post op.
Muscle is a very vascular tissue and thus the largest risk of complication post operatively is that of formation of a haematoma (collection of blood) in the area. If this happens it can take quite some time to resolve.
It is thus essential that several post op guidelines be followed.
See document below for more details.