Spinal anesthesia versus general anesthesia for elective lumbar spine surgery: A randomized clinical trial

BACKGROUND Either general or regional anesthesia can be used for lumbar disk surgery. The common anesthetic technique is general anesthesia (GA). The aim of this study was to compare the intra and postoperative outcomes of spinal anesthesia (SA) with GA in these patients. METHODS Seventy-two patients were enrolled in the study. They were randomized into two groups with 37 patients in GA Group and 35 ones in SA Group. The heart rate (HR), mean arterial pressure (MAP), blood loss, surgeons satisfaction with the operating conditions, the severity of postoperative pain based on visual analogue scale (VAS) and analgesic use were recorded. RESULTS The mean blood loss was significantly less in the SA Group compared to GA Group (p < 0.05). Intraoperative maximum blood pressure and heart rate changes were significantly less in SA Group (p < 0.05). The surgeons satisfaction was significantly more in the SA Group (p < 0.05). The number of patients who used postoperative analgesic as well as postoperative mean VAS was significantly less in SA Group in comparison with GA group (p < 0.05 for both). CONCLUSIONS Our study showed that SA was superior to GA in providing postoperative analgesia and decreasing blood loss while maintained better perioperative hemodynamic stability without increasing adverse side effects.