title: The incidence of transient neurologic symptoms after spinal anesthesia with mepivacaine.
abstract: We prospectively evaluated 1273 patients who received spinal (or combined spinal-epidural [CSE]) anesthesia with 1.5% mepivacaine (plain, no glucose) for ambulatory surgery. We hypothesized that analysis of a large series of patients would confirm previous findings that isobaric 1.5% mepivacaine is not frequently associated with transient neurologic symptoms (TNS). Patients were contacted twice after the anesthetic, at days 1-4 and days 6-9. One-thousand-two-hundred-ten patients were successfully contacted postoperatively (95% follow-up rate). None of the patients had permanent neurologic sequelae from the anesthetic. None of the 372 CSE anesthetics was inadequate for surgery. Fourteen of 838 (1.7%) of the spinal anesthetics were inadequate. TNS, defined as the new onset of back pain that radiated bilaterally to buttocks or distally, occurred in 78 patients (6.4%; 95% confidence intervals 5.1%-8%). The mean age of patients who developed TNS (48 +/- 14 yr) was older than that of patients without TNS (41 +/- 16 yr) (P < 0.001). TNS was not influenced by gender or intraoperative position. The frequent success rate and infrequent rates of complications such as TNS and postdural puncture headache suggest that spinal anesthesia with mepivacaine is likely to be a safe and effective anesthetic for ambulatory patients.
authors.affiliation: Anesthesiology Department, Hospital for Special Surgery, Weill Medical College of Cornell University, New York, New York.
authors.forename: Jacques T
authors.initials: JT
authors.lastname: YaDeau
authors.forename: Gregory A
authors.initials: GA
authors.lastname: Liguori
authors.forename: Victor M
authors.initials: VM
authors.lastname: Zayas
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000556:Ambulatory Surgical Procedures; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D000767:Anesthesia, Epidural / Q000009:adverse effects*; D000775:Anesthesia, Spinal / Q000009:adverse effects*; D000779:Anesthetics, Local / Q000009:adverse effects*; D000894:Anti-Inflammatory Agents, Non-Steroidal / Q000627:therapeutic use; D002648:Child; D015331:Cohort Studies; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008619:Mepivacaine / Q000009:adverse effects*; D008875:Middle Aged; D009422:Nervous System Diseases / Q000139:chemically induced* / Q000453:epidemiology*; D010147:Pain Measurement; D010149:Postoperative Pain / Q000188:drug therapy; D011446:Prospective Studies; D016896:Treatment Outcome
chemical_list: D000779:Anesthetics, Local; D000894:Anti-Inflammatory Agents, Non-Steroidal; D008619:Mepivacaine