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LETTER TO THE EDITOR

The Safety and Efficacy of Spinal Anesthesia for Surgery in Infants

Department of Anesthesiology; Texas Tech Health Science Center; Lubbock, Texas; rejfm{at}hotmail.com

To the Editor:

A recent editorial (1) and article (2) commented on the safety and efficacy of spinal anesthesia for surgery in infants.

Drs. Suresh and Hall give a thorough summary of the use of spinal anesthesia in infants and a thoughtful critique of the article. Williams et al. state that their time for surgery was 46 min. However, 46 min is at the upper limit for spinal tetracaine in infants. It has been my experience, in a number of institutions, that spinal anesthesia is uncommon in infants. I believe that one of the main reasons is that the length of surgery often outlasts the effects of the spinal. As the editorial stresses, if sedation is used, the infants are at the same risk for complications as those in whom general endotracheal anesthesia is used. Since this study was from one institution, I believe a national survey is needed to shed some light on this practice, how widely it is used, and how effective the technique functions.

Footnotes

Drs. Suresh and Hall do not wish to reply.

REFERENCES

1. Suresh S, Hall S. Spinal anesthesia in infants: is the impractical practical? Anesth Analg 2006;102:65–6.[Free Full Text]
2. Williams RK, Adams DC, Aladjem EV, et al. The safety and efficacy of spinal anesthesia for surgery in infants: the Vermont infant spinal registry. Anesth Analg 2006;102:67–71.[Abstract/Free Full Text]

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This Article Full Text (PDF) Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a colleague Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in Web of Science Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Request Permissions Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Mayhew, J. F. Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Mayhew, J. F.