• Jang-Ho Song, Chunwoo Yang, Woojoo Lee, Hongseok Kim, Youngjun Kim, and Hyunzu Kim.
• Department of Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine, Inha University College of Medicine, Incheon, Korea.
• BMC Anesthesiol. 2022 May 13; 22 (1): 143143.

BackgroundSpinal anesthesia and autonomic neuropathy (caused by diabetes) prolong the QTc interval. Changes in the duration of the QTc interval following subarachnoid blockade in patients with diabetes have not been evaluated. We hypothesized that after subarachnoid blockade, QTc interval prolongation would be greater in patients with diabetes than in those without. Accordingly, we compared the QTc interval, T wave peak-to-end interval (Tp-e interval), blood pressure, heart rate, and heart rate variability before and after spinal anesthesia in patients with and without diabetes.MethodsThis prospective observational study (Clinical Research Information Service identifier: KCT0004897) was conducted in a tertiary university hospital and included 24 patients with diabetes mellitus (DM group) and 24 patients without it (control group) who were scheduled for spinal anesthesia. The QTc interval, Tp-e interval, heart rate variability, blood pressure, and heart rate were measured before (T1) and 1 (T2), 5 (T3), and 10 min (T4) following subarachnoid blockade.ResultsTen minutes following subarachnoid blockade, the QTc intervals of patients in the DM group were significantly longer than the baseline values, whereas the change in the QTc interval in the control group was not significant (p < 0.0001 vs. p = 0.06).ConclusionSpinal anesthesia caused a more significant prolongation of the QTc interval in patients with diabetes than in those without.© 2022. The Author(s).

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