[Continuous spinal analgesia. A review]

Continuous spinal analgesia is a recognized method of analgesia for surgical interventions which was originally described in 1907. A brief historical review is presented with a description of the current technique. Emphasis is laid on comparison with other regional techniques, particularly single-shot analgesia and epidural analgesia. A review is presented of the current knowledge about technique, particularly the equipment, analgesic agents, advantages and disadvantages and indications and contraindications. it is concluded that continuous spinal analgesia probably offers certain advantages, particularly cardiovascular stability. However, the lack of randomized comparisons of the various techniques make further clinically controlled investigations necessary to illustrate this.