Unanticipated cardiac arrest under spinal anesthesia: An unavoidable mystery with review of current literature

Cardiac arrest during anesthesia and perioperative period is a matter of grave concern for any anesthesiologist. But such mishaps have been reported for one reason or the other in the literary sciences. We are reporting the occurrence of unanticipated delayed cardiac arrest following spinal anesthesia in two young and healthy patients. Fortunately, these patients were successfully resuscitated with timely and appropriate cardiopulmonary resuscitative measures. Occurrence of such cases needs timely reporting and exploring all the possible causes of these unusual and possibly avoidable events. The present case reports are an important addition to a series of recently published mishaps that occurred during spinal anesthesia in young and healthy patients.