• T C Chow and P H Cho.
• Department of Anesthesiology, Ji Ai General Hospital, Ping Tong, Taiwan, R.O.C.
• Acta Anaesthesiol. Sin. 1994 Sep 1;32(3):165-70.

AbstractShivering during spinal anesthesia is a common complication in patients undergoing transurethral resection of prostate. The high incidence of shivering may be due to decreased core temperature secondary to peripheral vasodilation from sympathetic blockade and/or cold irrigation fluid. Shivering is known to increase O2 consumption, ventilation and cardiac output, which can result in morbidity to patients with limited cardiopulmonary reserves. The aim of this randomized double-blind study was to investigate whether 1.25 micrograms of intrathecal fentanyl administered would influence the incidence and severity of shivering in patients who underwent TURP under spinal anesthesia. In the present study, 79 patients with (n = 41) or without (n = 38) low dose fentanyl were study. The incidence of shivering was 65.8% in control group and 12.2% in the study group. The difference was statistical significance. The shivering grade (1.0 +/- 0 vs 1.76 +/- 0.7) and accumulative shivering scores (2.4 +/- 0.8 vs 12.5 +/- 5.6) were also significantly decreased in the study group (P < 0.05). Obviously, there was no difference in the incidence of pharmacologic side effect. We concluded that low dose intrathecal fentanyl is a god method for decreasing both incidence and severity of shivering during spinal anesthesia.

16 keywords...

hide…