Regional anaesthesia and postoperative analgesia techniques for spine surgery - a review

The use of regional anaesthesia techniques for intra-operative anaesthesia and postoperative analgesia remains very controversial for patients scheduled to undergo spinal interventions. Spine surgeries, especially the most extensive types, are mostly performed under general anaesthesia. This has to be explained by the position required during surgery, the preference of the surgeon and/or anaesthesiologist and lack of sufficient literature supporting locoregional anaesthesia. In addition, there is an increasing trend to prefer general anaesthesia for spinal surgery. Nevertheless, with respect to spine surgeries more than 80% of the actual literature on neuraxial blocks is dated less than 12 years. The present overview was focused in the first place on the feasibility of (loco) regional techniques to be used intra-operatively. These techniques are also of interest for postoperative analgesia, either with a single bolus injection of local anaesthetics, opioids and adjuvants, alone or in combination, in continuous or intermittent administration and requiring the presence of foreign material in the neighborhood of the surgical field. As all techniques described offered variable success rates, future research is mandatory to determine their superiority over general intra-operative anaesthesia and conventional pain therapy with paracetamol, NSAIDs, opioids used alone or in combination.