Incidenece of unexpected hemodynamic and respiratory complications under general and spinal anesthesia

Abstract

We retrospectively reviewed the hospital records of 20, 616 patients received a general or spinal anesthetic from 1994 through 1998 in order to determine the incidence of hemodynamic or respiratory events. The incidence (rates per 10, 000) were 13.1 for cardiac arrest, 136.8 for severe hypotension, 66.9 for severe bradycardia, 26.7 for severe hypoxia, 13.6 for other complications. Most events were associated with induction of anesthesia (61%), or spinal anesthetic (25%) . Sudden death was associated with cardiac arrest with massive bleeding, cardiac rupture and cardiac tamponade.