Subarachnoid anaesthesia with bupivacaine for orthopaedic procedures in the elderly

The use of a plain 0.5% solution of isobaric bupivacaine for spinal anaesthesia is described in a consecutive series of 410 patients undergoing orthopaedic operations on the lower limbs. It gave analgesia of sufficient extent, duration and degree in 96.6% of cases for procedures that lasted up to 250 min. The most common problem was arterial hypotension which required sympathomimetic therapy in 37.7% of patients.