Hypotension in spinal and epidural anesthesia

Abstract EN

Background : Hypotension occurs during spinal block and may be associated with serious complications.

The blood pressure decreases by 39-45% after intrathecal and epidural anesthesia.

Objective : To evaluate intrathecal and epidural anesthesia in patients with gynecological surgery and compare hypotension in both methods.

Design : Randomized clinical trial.

Setting : Sina Hospital, Tehran, Iran.

Method : Sixty patients were evaluated for hypotension induced by Lidocaine used intrathecally or epidurally.

The patients were randomly assigned in the two groups; all the patients had gynecological surgery.

Intrathecal anesthesia was administered using 75mg (1.5ml) of Lidocaine 5 % in the first group and epidural anesthesia was administered using 300mg (20ml) of Lidocaine 1.5 % in the second group.

The injections were done in L4-L5 space.

Result: The decrease in systolic blood pressure was faster and significantly more in intrathecal than in the epidural group (p<0.05).

Conclusion: The decrease in blood pressure is less seen in epidu