Articles: general-anesthesia.
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Acta Anaesthesiol Scand · Aug 1980
Randomized Controlled Trial Comparative Study Clinical TrialEpidural versus general anaesthesia for total hip arthroplasty in elderly patients.
Sixty elderly patients were given at random either epidural analgesia with bupivacaine 0.75% or general anaesthesia with thiopentone, fentanyl, pancuronium, N2O/O2 for total hip replacement. Preoperatively the patients were of equal physical status with normal and similar laboratory values. All patients were mentally normal for their age. ⋯ Two patients in the epidural group had symptoms of pulmonary embolism postoperatively. Thus elderly patients appear to do better after hip replacement with less deterioration of cerebral and pulmonary functions when given epidural analgesia than when surgery is performed under general anaesthesia. These patients should therefore be offered epidural analgesia whenever possible.
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Acta Anaesthesiol Scand · Aug 1980
Comparative StudyEffect of epidural versus general anaesthesia on calf blood flow.
The arterial inflow into the calf, venous emptying rate and venous capacity were studied by means of venous occlusion plethysmography on the non-operated leg in two groups of patients undergoing total hip replacement. One group of eight patients received epidural blockade intraoperatively, which was prolonged postoperatively for pain relief, while the other group of eight patients was given general anaesthesia with intermittent positive-pressure ventilation intraoperatively and parenteral analgesics for pain relief in the postoperative period. ⋯ The sustained reduction of flow in the deep veins of the lower limb might be a significant contributory factor in the initiation of deep venous thrombosis. In three of the eight patients in the general anaesthesia group, the venous emptying rate and venous capacity had decreased 3 h postoperatively to a very low level, indicating thrombus formation in immediate association with the surgery.