Abstract
To 23patients in good health who were scheduled for orthopaedic surgery of lower extremity a relation between the spread of spinal analgesia and the distance between a spinous process of C7 to the inter space of L4-5 (the C7-L14 distance) were examined. After measureing the C7-L4 distance, subarachinoid puncuture was performed using a standard midline aproach with a 25gauge spinal needle and 2.1ml of 0.3% dibucaine was administrated in 15seconds. The segmental spread of analgesia was studied by pinprick stimulation.
The patients with high hight had a long C7-L4 distance and anequation of [hight]=1.3×[C7-L4 distance]+107.67 was obtained. There was a regression between the segmental spread of analgesia and the C7-L4 distance. The spread of analgesia at 30 minitues after subarachinoid puncuture was extended up to about one thoratic vertebra than that of 5minitues. The authors concluded that measurement of the C7-L4 distance before spinal anesthesia was meaningful.
