A clinical study of combined spinal epidural anaesthesia for lower abdominal and lower limb surgeries

Abstract

To evaluate the safety and efficiency of combined spinal epidural anaesthesia and to find the technique that provide adequate surgical anaesthesia and analgesia with minimal side effects. Objective: 1. To evaluate the onset of sensory blockade and onset of motor blockade. 2. To find the extension of sensory blockade after epidural topup and haemodynamic changes. Study design: This prospective study was conducted in the department of anaesthesiology in association with department of orthopaedics, surgery and gynaecology from April 2011 to March 2013. This study was done to evaluate the onset of sensory and motor blockade and to find the extension of sensory blockade after epidural top-up and haemodynamic changes. Results: The onset of analgesia was 3.4  1.0 min. The epidural dose caused further ascent of sensory analgesia by three to four segments with an average of 2.6  0.9 segments. The time taken for the onset of the motor blockade was 5.8  1.1 min. Conclusion: Combined spinal epidural anaesthesia provides an opportunity to utilize the major advantages of spinal and epidural anaesthesia. It produces a multi compartment block, such that behaviour of the spinal block may be modified by subsequent epidural injections.