[Anesthetic complications in spinal surgery]

Background. The frequency of occurrence of anesthesiological complications is closely associated with the type of operation being performed and the chosen method of inducing anesthesia. The present study described complications encountered during anesthesia for various types of surgery to correct scoliosis. The characteristic features of these operations make it possible to identify some additional risk factors associated with anesthesia. A qualitative and quantitative analysis of the data on adverse events enables comparison with published reports. The goal of this study is to compare our results with those reported by other authors, and to address the question of whether or not specific problems occurring during anesthesia for surgical correction of scoliosis have an impact on the types and frequency of complications. Material and methods. We performed a retrospective analysis of the anesthesiological documentation from the period 1998-2002 for patients who underwent surgical reconstruction by the posterior approach (329 cases) or anterior approach (108 cases). The complications reported in these two groups were analyzed. Results. We found 31 complications (9.4%) in patients operated with the posterior approach, and 10 complications (9.3%) in those operated with the anterior approach. Conclusions. The frequency of complication in the study population did not differ from that in published reports. Qualitative differences depend on the type of surgical technique used.