RESEARCH ARTICLE
CASE REPORT - -Combined General and Spinal Anesthesia for Lumbar decompression in an Opioid-intolerant Patient: Intra-operative Administration of Intrathecal Bupivacaine via the Surgical Incision
Stephen D. Wilkins, Theodore A. Alston, Jingping Wang*
Article Information
Identifiers and Pagination:
Year: 2012Volume: 6
First Page: 9
Last Page: 11
Publisher ID: TOATJ-6-9
DOI: 10.2174/1874321801206010009
Article History:
Received Date: 21/11/2011Revision Received Date: 15/12/2011
Acceptance Date: 30/12/2011
Electronic publication date: 24/2/2012
Collection year: 2012
open-access license: This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License (CC-BY 4.0), a copy of which is available at: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode. This license permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Abstract
We illustrate repeat dosing of spinal anesthesia as a means to avoid opioids during lumbar surgery for a patient intolerant of opioids.
A patient required redo lumbar surgery but had a marked history of nausea, vomiting and retching in response to opioids. A propofol-based anesthetic was supplemented with intravenous ketamine and intrathecal bupivacaine. The first dose of bupivacaine receded during the lengthy surgical procedure but was supplemented by means of a 25-gauge pencil-point needle passed through the exposed dura. Postoperatively, there was no spinal fluid leak, no headache, and no nausea.
Supplementation of intrathecal anesthesia under direct dural vision during lengthy lumbar surgery is facile, can help to obviate a need for opioids, and can aid in avoidance of postoperative nausea and vomiting.