Clinical and experimental evaluation of continuous spinal anesthesia

ABSTRACT

Continuous spinal anesthesia is becoming more and more popular in many countries. This study was conducted to evaluate this technique through clinical and experimental work. Sixty-three adult male patients ASA class I and II were included in this clinical study. They were divided into three groups according to the drug injected intrathecally [lidocaine, meperidine HCl and ketamine HCl]. Inability to thread the catheter into the subarachnoid space occurred in 6.3% of cases. Any breakage of catheters were not experienced. 95.2% had adequate analgesia, while 4.8% had patchy analgesia in lidocaine group. Motor paralysis was more intensive in lidocaine group than meperidine and ketamine group. The study showed that CSA provided good cardiovascular stability and provided good titration of the drug injected. No neurological or respiratory complications observed in the study. The incidence of postdural puncture headache was 3.2%. Thirty male rabbits were included in the experimental study. They were divided into six groups according to the drug injected intrathecally [methylene blue, omnopic 300, lidocaine, meperidine and ketamine]. The use of microcatheter minimized the leakage of CSF. The distribution of the radiopaque dye was uniform. A clear motor affection was noticed in all groups