• P Marhofer, H Koinig, and S Kapral.
• Universitätsklinik für Anästhesie und Intensivmedizin, Universität Wien, Vienna, Austria. peter.marhofer@univie.ac.at
• Anaesthesist. 2003 Jan 1;52(1):55-67.

AbstractCaudal anaesthesia is the most frequently used regional technique in paediatric anaesthesia. Caudal in combination with general anaesthesia is usually performed in healthy children (i.e. for herniotomy or hypospadias). Therefore every complication of this method is a catastrophe, even when the incidence of these complications is very low. Some of the documented complications of caudal anaesthesia in children are caused by the local anaesthetic solutions and/or by additives. Thus, the choice of substances for paediatric caudal blocks should minimize the risk associated with the substances used for this indication. Over the last decades the standard was bupivacaine but because of serious cardiovascular and central-nervous toxicity following inadvertent intravascular injection of bupivacaine during caudal puncture, the less toxic ropivacaine should be favoured for this indication. A huge number of clinical studies have proven the clinical effectiveness and safety of ropivacaine also for this indication. In addition, levobupivacaine, the L-enantiomere of bupivacaine, will also be an interesting local anaesthetic in the future for paediatric caudal anaesthesia. By using additives to local anaesthetics better analgesic properties should be obtained. Following an exact review of the literature, only clonidine and S(+)-ketamine are useful additives to local anaesthetics in paediatric caudal anaesthesia.

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