Anesthesia concerns in prostate brachytherapy: An institutional experience

Prostate cancer is a common cancer found in men worldwide. Brachytherapy is an established modality used for the treatment of these patients. Although anesthetic management of such patients is challenging but the ideal anesthetic technique has not yet been established. Our study aims to identify the most efficacious anesthetic technique for perioperative management of prostate cancer patients undergoing brachytherapy.

Retrospective analysis of ten patients who underwent 16 brachytherapy sessions under combined spinal epidural (CSE) anesthesia between April 2016 and December 2016 was done. The data were collected, tabulated using MS Excel, and statistically analyzed with EPI Info 6 and SPSS-16 statistical software (SPSS Inc. Chicago, USA) to draw relative conclusions.

The median peak sensory dermatome level achieved was T6 and the median maximum motor block achieved was grade 2. The mean (± standard deviation (SD)) time to sensory regression to T10 (range T5-T8) dermatome was found to be 118.00 ± 47.110 (range = 0-238) minutes. Despite the presence of co-morbidities, minor intraoperative complications were observed only in two patients. The postoperative numerical rating scale (NRS) was less than 4 in all patients during the first 24 hours. None of our patients complained of nausea, vomiting, pruritus and respiratory depression. The mean (± SD) patient satisfaction score was 44.40 ± 0.871 (range : 1-5) at the end of 24 hours.

CSE anesthesia is a safe and effective technique for anesthetic management of patients undergoing prostate brachytherapy.