Lyme Disease and Anesthesia Considerations

This review seeks to examine the epidemiology, clinical presentation, diagnosis, and treatment of Lyme disease and focuses on the anesthetic implications of the infection. Lyme disease has become the fifth most common nationally notifiable disease and is the most commonly reported vector-transmitted infection in the United States. This emerging infectious disease is caused by Borrelia bacteria and is transmitted by the bite of Ixodes scapularis, a hard-body tick, also known as the deer tick or blacklegged tick.