Spinal anaesthesia: An update

Abstract

Spinal anaesthesia remains a popular technique for surgery to the abdomen, pelvis and lower limbs. Complications after spinal anaesthesia are minimal and these have been further reduced by advances in needle design. Also, the introduction of the newer local anaesthetic agents has reconfirmed the need for hyperbaric, glucose-containing solutions in order to provide predictably reliable clinical block patterns. Hyperbaric solutions of ropivacaine may represent an agent with a similar recovery profile to 5% lidocaine without the neurological complications and be of interest to those performing spinal anaesthesia in the day-case setting. However, there remains no conclusive evidence that the use of small doses of hyperbaric solutions of local anaesthetic can be used to provide spinal anaesthesia that is exclusively unilateral. © The Board of Management and Trustees of the British Journal of Anaesthesia [2005]. All rights reserved.