Abstract
General anesthesia is usually administered for patients undergoing lumbar spine surgery. But in the case of patients who are predicted to have severe adverse events associated with general anesthesia because of their systemic diseases, another method should be considered. We have experienced two cases of spinal anesthesia for lumbar spine surgery.
The first patient was diagnosed as having lumbar canal stenosis with idiopathic interstitial pneumonia. The second patient was diagnosed as having lumbar disk hernia with a family history of malignant hyperthermia. Spinal anesthesia was performed with 0.5% isobaric bupivacaine in the both patients, and the block level was Th4 in the first patient, and Th6 in the second patient. Severe hypotension was observed in the both patients, and mild nausea was observed in second patient. But hypoventilation or an irregular respiratory pattern were not observed during the operation.
In the management of spinal anesthesia for lumbar spine surgery, preventing adverse events such as severe hypotension, nausea, and hypoventilation is very important.
