Is there any benefit in associating neuraxial anesthesia to general anesthesia for coronary artery bypass graft surgery?
OBJECTIVE
The use of neuraxial anesthesia in cardiac surgery is recent, but the hemodynamic effects of local anesthetics and anticoagulation can result in risk to patients.


OBJECTIVE
To review the benefits of neuraxial anesthesia in cardiac surgery for CABG through a systematic review of systematic reviews.


BACKGROUND
The search was performed in Pubmed (January 1966 to December 2012), Embase (1974 to December 2012), The Cochrane Library (volume 10, 2012) and Lilacs (1982 to December 2012) databases, in search of articles of systematic reviews. The following variables: mortality, myocardial infarction, stroke, in-hospital length of stay, arrhythmias and epidural hematoma were analyzed.


CONCLUSIONS
The use of neuraxial anesthesia in cardiac surgery remains controversial. The greatest benefit found by this review was the possibility of reducing postoperative arrhythmias, but this result was contradictory among the identified findings. The results of findings regarding mortality, myocardial infarction, stroke and in-hospital length of stay did not show greater efficacy of neuraxial anesthesia.
Universidade Federal de Alagoas, Maceió, AL, Brazil. Electronic address: fabianotimbo@yahoo.com.br.
Fabiano Timbó
FT
Barbosa
Universidade Estadual de Ciências da Saúde de Alagoas, Maceió, AL, Brazil.
Célio Fernando
CF
de Sousa Rodrigues
Universidade Estadual de Ciências da Saúde de Alagoas, Maceió, AL, Brazil.
Aldemar Araújo
AA
Castro
Centro de Ensinos Superiores de Maceió, Maceió, AL, Brazil.
Rafael Martins
RM
da Cunha
Centro Universitário Uniseb Interativo, Maceió, AL, Brazil.
Tatiana Roa Bezerra Wanderley
TR
Barbosa
D000767:Anesthesia, Epidural / Q000379:methods*; D000768:Anesthesia, General / Q000379:methods*; D000775:Anesthesia, Spinal / Q000379:methods*; D019162:Anesthetics, Combined; D001026:Coronary Artery Bypass; D006801:Humans; D011183:Postoperative Complications / Q000517:prevention & control*
D019162:Anesthetics, Combined
Anestesia epidural torácica; Anestesia geral; Anestesia subaracnoidea; Evidence; Evidências; General anesthesia; Mortalidade; Mortality; Revisão sistemática; Subarachnoid anesthesia; Systematic review; Thoracic epidural anesthesia