Spinal Anaesthesia and Neurological Complications: A Brief Report

Abstract

Spinal anaesthesia is widely performed for lower abdominal, inguinal, and lower extremity operations in routine practice, with a low complication rate. Neurological deficits are rare but significant complications of spinal anaesthesia. These complications have a wide spectrum varying from mild lumbar pain to serious paraplegia, and almost all time anesthesiologists are held responsible for this. However, most of these complications can be prevented by some precautions such as detailed preoperative evaluation of the patients, better anatomic and pharmacologic knowledge, adequate technical support, compliance with routine guidelines of the procedure, and close postoperative monitoring. In this review, the definitions, risk factors, clinical findings, diagnostic and therapeutic approaches, and preventive factors of the neurological complications associated with spinal anaesthesia were aimed to discuss with the relevant literature.