Minerva anestesiologica
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Minerva anestesiologica · Sep 2010
Conversion of spinal anesthesia into general anesthesia: an evaluation of more than 35,000 spinal anesthetics.
The aim of this study was to evaluate the number of conversions from spinal anesthesia (SA) into general anesthesia (GA) in a large number of patients who underwent surgery over a period of twenty-one years. ⋯ SA has been found to be a safe and highly effective technique. Failure of SA was infrequent in a large number of patients surveyed and most often occurred with less experienced anesthesiologists. Conversion to GA did not produced different outcomes in comparison with planned GA. Prospective studies with a definite protocol for recording data performed on a large number of patients may help in determining the factors associated with conversion from SA into GA and how to avoid these unexpected situations.