• Kalaivani V, Vinayak S Pujari, Sreevathsa M R, Bharati V Hiremath, and Yatish Bevinaguddaiah.
• Associate Professor, Department of Surgery, M S Ramaiah Medical College & Hospitals , New BEL Road, MSR Nagar, Bangalore, India .
• J Clin Diagn Res. 2014 Aug 1; 8 (8): NC01-4.

IntroductionLaparoscopic cholecystectomy (LC) is conventionally performed under general anaesthesia (GA) in our institution. There are multiple studies which have found spinal anaesthesia as a safe alternative. We have conducted this study of LC, performed under spinal anesthesia to assess its safety and feasibility in comparison with GA.Materials And MethodsFifty patients with symptomatic gallstone disease and American Society of Anesthesiologists status I or II were randomised to have LC under spinal (n = 25) or general (n = 25) anesthesia. Intraoperative vitals, postoperative pain, complications, recovery, and surgeon satisfaction were compared between the 2 groups.ResultsIn the SA group six patients (24%) complained of shoulder pain, two patients required conversion to GA (8%) as the pain did not subside with Fentanyl. None of the patients in the SA group had immediate postoperative pain at operated site. Only two (8%) patients had pain score of 4 at the operative site within eight hours requiring rescue analgesic. One patient had nausea but no vomiting (4%). All the patients (100%) in the GA group had pain at operated site immediately after surgery and their pain score ranged from 4-7, all patients received rescue analgesic before shifting to the ward. In the first 24h tramadol required as rescue in the GA group was 82±24 mg which was significantly higher than the SA group requiring only 30±33.16 mg. Although, the GA group had more patients experiencing postoperative nausea & vomiting it was not statistically significant.ConclusionSA as the sole anaesthesia technique is feasible, safe and cost effective for elective LC.

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