Hemodynamic Effects of Combination of General and Caudal Anesthesia in Children

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Caudal anesthesia has gained wide acceptance in pediatric anesthesia as a technique for providing postoperative pain relief and reducing general anesthetic requirement for surgical procedures below umbilicus. Although blood pressure has been shown to be well maintained with caudal anesthesia in pediatrics, little is known about the change in hemodynamics with combined general and caudal anesthesia. This study was designed to investigate the hemodynamic changes of combined general and caudal anesthesia for lower abdominal surgery in children. METHODS: Sixty children scheduled for lower abdominal surgery were involved. They were randomly divided into 2 groups: group G (n = 30); anesthesia with enflurane and N2O, and the group GC (n = 30); anesthesia with combined caudal block using 1% lidocaine 1 ml/kg and enflurane. Systolic (SBP), diastolic (DBP), mean blood pressure (MBP), and heart rate (HR) were measured at the 6 different time periods; at before induction (T1), just before skin incision (T2), just after skin incision (T3), 5 min (T4), 10 min (T5), and 30 min (T6) after skin incision. RESULTS: There were no significant differences in variables of hemodynamics between both group. Compared with the values at T1, those of SBP, DBP, and MBP at T2, T3, T4, T5, and T6 were decreased in both groups. However, there were no difference in those values at the same time periods between the two groups. The values of SBP, DBP, and MAP at T3, T4, T5, T6 in group G were higher compared with those at T2. CONCLUSIONS: From these results, we concluded that there were no significant changes in hemodynamics by combined general and caudal anesthesia in pediatric patients. [By kind permission, KoreaMed, Korean Association of Medical Journal Editors.]