title: Regional anesthesia is a good alternative to general anesthesia in pediatric surgery: Experience in 1,554 children.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Although caudal and spinal blocks are modern and safe techniques, in many centers children still are operated on under general anesthesia (GA), or the blocks are used for postoperative analgesia after GA in infraumbilical operations. The authors aimed to document the results and the complications of 1,554 regional anesthesia cases, thereby assessing their validity.
  
  
  METHODS
  The analysis of 1,459 caudal and 95 spinal blocks cases collected until January 2001 in children from newborn to 12 years of age are documented retrospectively. The types of anesthesia analyzed in the study were caudal block (CB) only, CB plus GA, GA plus CB, GA plus spinal block, and spinal block only.
  
  
  RESULTS
  There were 1,338 caudal and 95 spinal block cases that clinically were satisfactory. Because the duration of CB was not sufficient in 39 cases, GA was used. Failure to produce a CB occurred in 82 cases (5.57%). There were 257 of 1,338 patients operated on under GA and supported by caudal block for postoperative analgesia.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Caudal anesthesia seems to be an inexpensive, simple, and effective technique not only as a supplement for postoperative analgesia, but also as a single method of anesthesia. and the authors recommend its use in a wider setting of clinical entities in infraumbilical surgical procedures of children.
authors.affiliation: Departments of Pediatric Surgery and Anesthesiology, Turgut Ozal Medical Center, Inonu University, Faculty of Medicine, Malatya, Turkey.
authors.forename: Sema
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Uguralp
authors.forename: Murat
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Mutus
authors.forename: Ahmet
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Koroglu
authors.forename: Necla
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Gurbuz
authors.forename: Ugur
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Koltuksuz
authors.forename: Mehmet
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Demircan
mesh_terms: D000367:Age Factors; D015360:Analgesia, Epidural / Q000379:methods; D000763:Anesthesia, Caudal / Q000379:methods*; D000765:Anesthesia, Conduction / Q000379:methods*; D000768:Anesthesia, General; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D009407:Nerve Block / Q000379:methods; D010149:Postoperative Pain / Q000517:prevention & control* / Q000628:therapy; D010372:Pediatrics; D013514:Surgical Procedures, Operative