[Chemonucleolysis. Peridural anesthesia versus general anesthesia]

A prospective comparative study was carried out between two anesthetic techniques for chemonucleolysis. Patients were divided into 2 groups of 50 patients each. Group A were submitted to general anesthesia and group B to epidural anesthesia with 0.5% bupivacaine, 2% mepivacaine and buprenorphine. Group B was divided into 2 subgroups: in B1, buprenorphine was administered with the local anesthetics, while in B2 buprenorphine was administered postoperatively when pain appeared. Postoperative pain and side effects like anaphylaxis were evaluated. No anaphylactic reactions occurred. Severe lumbar pain appeared in 22% of patients in group A in spite of systematic analgesics, while group B lumbalgia was not severe in any case. Patients in subgroup B1 did not have pain during the 24 first hours and 47.8% of patients in subgroup B2 needed in most of the cases only a dose of buprenorphine. We conclude that epidural anesthesia is a good technique in chemonucleolysis and that the association bupivacaine, mepivacaine and buprenorphine provides a good postoperative pain relief.