[Loco-regional anesthesia practices in 1261 cases]

The aim of this study was to take stock of the practice of the loco-regional anesthesia (LRA) at the University Hospital Center of Point G from January 2004 to December 2008.

This is a retrospective study, assessing the practice of LRA. The demographic data, the surgery, the technical characteristics of the procedure made, the type of local anesthetic used, adverse events were evaluated.

The LRA involved 1261 patients - 8.30% of the total number of surgical procedures occurring during the studied period. The American Society of Anesthesiology (ASA) classification was used for the evaluation of patients in scheduled surgery. The patients belonged to class 1 (50.40%) and Class 2 (49.60%). The main surgical procedures were: 26.20% surgical prostatic adenomectomy, 23.80% of caesarean section, and the fistulogram test for 19.04%. The LRA techniques performed were: spinal anesthesia, 87.60%, epidural anesthesia, 12%. Three hundred and three adverse events (24%) have been reported, three (1%) of them have resulted in the death of the patient. The incidence of arterial hypotension was 94.40%, and 4.6% for bradycardia. The three heart attacks were fatal (0.024 ‰). Patients operated under spinal anesthesia and patients aged 60 years and older had more adverse events with 20% and 10.38% for p <0.05 respectively. Sixty eight failures (5.4%) were observed.

The practice of LRA at the University Hospital of Point G is characterized by adverse events and a low number of deaths. Patients operated under spinal anesthesia and patients aged 60 years and older are at greatest risk of adverse events.