Abstract

Background - Continuous spinal anesthesia (CSA) offers considerable advantages over “singleshot” spinal or epidural anesthesia since it allows administration of well-controlled anesthesia using small doses of local anesthetics and a definite end point with less failure rate. The combined spinal–epidural technique (CSE) involves intentional subarachnoid blockade and epidural catheter placement during the same procedure. CSE allows a rapid onset of neuraxial blockade, which can subsequently be prolonged or modified. Study detail - Here we planned a prospective randomized study on continuous spinal anesthesia versus combined spinal epidural block for abdominal oncological surgery. Informed consent was obtained from the subjects and institutional approval was obtained before random and prospective studies of 50 patients who were scheduled for abdominal oncological surgery. Results and outcome - Our results suggest that both CSA and CSE provided good surgical conditions with low incidence of complications. CSA provided better cardiovascular stability with a smaller dose of local anaesthetic and shorter onset time, and without failures. We used epidural needle for CSA as it is cost effective and the technique is easy