[Intradural anesthesia: an alternative in surgery on premature infants]

The greater survival of premature infants, the frequency with which these children present a pathology of surgical treatment, and their physiological immaturity, particularly in the respiratory system, entail a great many difficulties in the postoperative process. With the aim of decreasing these postoperative difficulties and because of the publications of several articles with the same goal, it is implemented a study of spinal anesthesia with isobaric bupivacaine in the premature babies put under a treatment or surgery of the inguinal canal, in order to asses the efficiency of this technique and the cardiovascular consequences. The average duration of the anesthesia was 59 +/- 13 minutes. The latency period is practically nonexistent and the average level that was achieved is situated between D4-D6, which is enough so as to carry out the operation without problems and achieving a complete analgesia in the inguinal area. It has not been observed relevant hemodynamic alterations. The outcomes are obvious, for the difficulties disappear, especially those coming from the respiratory system in the general anesthesia with intubation such as apnea, cyanosis and bradycardia, stridor and atelectasis. This kind of anesthesia allows the surgeon a perfect relaxation and analgesia and the children a comfort throughout the surgical event. By way of conclusion, the spinal anesthesia is a good option instead of the general anesthesia for suckling babies because of the risk of respiratory difficulties they present, alone all when they are premature and they are recovering from a syndrome of respiratory difficulty.