RESUMO
UNLABELLED: The study analyses the efficacy and the safety of caudal anesthesia for the intra and postoperative pain management in children. MATERIAL AND METHOD: A retrospective study was conducted over a five years period enrolling 150 children scheduled for various surgical procedures. We used the standard technique ("loss of resistance", "single shot", lateral decubitus). RESULTS: The most important age groups were 1 month - 1 year, 64 cases (42.66%) and 1-6 years - 71 cases (47.33%). We performed 144 caudal blocks associated with general anesthesia, 3 associated with sedation and 3 simple caudal blocks. In 129 cases, we used bupivacaine 0.25% as a single analgetic substance, in five cases bupivacaine 0.25% with lidocaine 1%, and in 16 cases bupivacaine 0.25% with fentanyl 1 mcg/kg. The quality of the analgesia was very good in 128 cases (85.33%), good in 12 (8%) and poor in 10 cases (6.66%). The morbidity rate was 13.33% (20 cases), the most frequent complication being urinary retention (8 cases - 5.33%). CONCLUSIONS: The caudal block is an efficient procedure for intra and postoperative analgesia in children. Associated with general anesthesia it is very useful for the management of the age groups 1 month - 1 year and 1-6 years.
