Regional-Anaesthesie
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Regional-Anaesthesie · Aug 1991
Randomized Controlled Trial Comparative Study Clinical Trial[Continuous spinal anesthesia versus continuous epidural anesthesia in surgery of the lower extremities. A prospective randomized study].
Continuous epidural anesthesia (CEA) is generally accepted as a routine method of regional anesthesia while there has been only limited application of continuous spinal anesthesia (CSA), due mainly to a lack of adequate spinal catheters. With the introduction of a new, ultra-thin spinal catheter (32 G) inserted via a thin puncture needle, some of the complications reported after CSA can be eliminated. We studied CSA versus CEA in lower-extremity operations. ⋯ The catheter designed for CSA is easy to use, although because of its small diameter a certain manual dexterity is required. In addition, CSA resulted in a more rapid onset of action and more pronounced sensorimotor blockade than did CEA. Hemodynamic alterations and side effects were comparably low in both groups.