Spinal anesthesia. Part II: The importance of anatomy, indications and drugs

Abstract

The spinal anaesthesia requires knowledge of the anatomy of the involved parts, as well as its variations with position and the eventual injured structures. Spinal anaesthesia is indicated when the surgical procedure can be accomplished with a sensitive level of anesthesia that does not affect the patients comfort. Absolute contraindications are the patients rejection of the technique, infection at the punction site, sepsis and other forms of circulatory failure, endocranial hypertension and severe coagulopathy. The success of this technique depends in part of the local anesthesic and the most commonly used are lidocaine and bupivacaine.