[Spinal anesthesia in urology. Apropos of 2200 cases].
The indications for rachianesthesia have been considerably widened in recent years in our department. The technique is particularly suitable for urological cases, and two thousand patients have been anesthetized in this way over the past four years, with a zero mortality rate. Complications were exceptional at operation, and postoperative complications consisted mainly of headaches. The incidence of these cases can be reduced by using very fine needles, and the are more frequent in the young than in older patients. There are few absolute contra-indications, and they consist in coagulation problems, suppurative lesions of the lumbar region, evolutive medullar affections and a case history of Pott's disease. The advantage of rachidial over peridural anesthesia is the greater rapidity of the execution and installation. For this reason it seems to us the method of choice for relatively short and repetitive operations, and operations on elderly patients (it is preferable to avoid this method in young patients, because of the risk of headaches). We reserve peridural anesthesia more particularly for long operations requiring postoperative analgesia.
D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D000767:Anesthesia, Epidural; D000775:Anesthesia, Spinal / Q000009:adverse effects; D005260:Female; D006261:Headache / Q000209:etiology; D006439:Hemodynamics; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D014570:Urologic Diseases / Q000601:surgery*
Intérêt de la rachianesthésie en urologie. A propos de 2200 cas.