Anesth Pain Med.  2016 Apr;11(2):190-194. 10.17085/apm.2016.11.2.190.

Comparison of spinal anesthesia between the non-elderly and elderly patients

• Park SY
• Kim JH
• Rim JC
• Kim JA
• Lee JH
• Choi SR
• Lee SC
• Lee JH
• Chung CJ

• KMID: 2358484
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.17085/apm.2016.11.2.190

Abstract

BACKGROUND
The clinical features of spinal anesthesia may differ between young and old patients because of the anatomical and physiological changes that occur with an increase in age. This study was performed retrospectively to compare the clinical aspects of spinal anesthesia between the non-elderly and elderly patients.
METHODS
We investigated the medical records of 1,180 adult patients who received spinal anesthesia during a one-year period. They were divided into two groups on the basis of 65 years of age; the non-elderly patient group (Y group, n = 813) versus the elderly patient group (E group, n = 367). Pre-, intra-, and postoperative data related to spinal anesthesia were collected. The data about satisfaction and causes of dissatisfaction with the procedure were evaluated.
RESULTS
There were significant differences between the two groups in terms of age, height, and weight, except for sex. Significantly more than two attempts at spinal puncture were performed in the E group (37.6%) than in the Y group (21.4%). There were no statistically significant differences in perioperative complications after spinal anesthesia between the two groups. There were no significant differences in the reported causes of dissatisfaction between the two groups. The rate of wanting to undergo spinal anesthesia in the future was 96.4% in the Y group and 97.5% in the E group, which showed no statistically significant difference.
CONCLUSIONS
Although the elderly patients had to undergo more spinal puncture attempts, more than 90% of the elderly patients were satisfied with spinal anesthesia and wanted to undergo spinal anesthesia again for similar surgeries in the future.

Keyword

Elderly patient; Spinal anesthesia

MeSH Terms

Adult
Aged*
Anesthesia, Spinal*
Humans
Medical Records
Retrospective Studies
Spinal Puncture

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