• A Brizzi, F Greco, A Malvasi, A Valerio, and V Martino.
• Unit of Obstetric Anesthesia, Casa di Cura S.Maria, Bari, Italy. abrizzi@libero.it
• Minerva Anestesiol. 2005 Nov 1;71(11):701-9.

AimThe aim of our study was to prove that by using sequential combined spinal-epidural (CSE) anesthesia it is possible to overcome the limits connected to the use of spinal anesthesia (SA) alone for elective cesarean section.MethodsWe examined 100 women submitted to cesarean section; SA was administered to 50 patients and sequential CSE technique to the other 50. In every woman before execution of the anesthesia we infused 500 mL of a plasma expander and a previous administration of 5 mg of ephedrine. The CSE was executed at the L1-L2 intervertebral space, administering in spinal anesthesia 5 mg of levobupivacaine with 5 _g of sufentanil, and in peridural anesthesia 10-12 mL of levobupivacaine 0.25% according to the patient's height. The peridural catheter for postoperative analgesia was then positioned. In the group of women submitted only to SA, 7.5-8 mg of levobupivacaine was injected, according to the patient's height, in the L1-L2 intervertebral space, with 5 _g of sufentanil. We considered the following adverse effects: hypotension; bradycardia; vomiting; intraoperative discomfort and motor block.ResultsThe results obtained showed that, with a P < or = 0.05, the incidence of motor block (P < 0.001), discomfort (P < 0.001) and hypotension (P = 0.021) in the SA group is greater than in the CSE group. The difference in the incidence of vomiting (P = 0.147) and bradycardia (P = 0.067) between the 2 groups is not statistically significant.ConclusionsIn our opinion sequential CSE can be considered an important step forward in the regional anesthesia used for elective cesarean section.

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