The Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery, Vol 67, Issue 9 1384-1387, Copyright © 1985 by Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery, Inc
Induced moderate hypotensive anesthesia for spinal fusion and Harrington-rod instrumentation
NJ Patel, BS Patel, S Paskin and S Laufer
The effect of moderate hypotensive anesthesia on blood loss, need for
transfusion, and length of surgery of forty-nine patients who underwent
posterior spinal fusion and Harrington-rod instrumentation was compared
retrospectively. Twenty-seven patients were given enflurane as the main
anesthetic agent, with fentanyl supplementation, and their blood pressure
was maintained at twenty to thirty millimeters of mercury less than the
preoperative systolic blood pressure. These patients were compared with
twenty-two patients who had been anesthetized with nitrous oxide, oxygen,
and narcotic technique and were normotensive throughout the duration of the
anesthesia. The results were analyzed by the unpaired Student t test.
Moderate hypotensive anesthesia was found to significantly decrease the
average blood loss by nearly 40 per cent, reduce the need for transfusion
by nearly 45 per cent, and shorten the average operating time by nearly 10
per cent. No complications attributable to the anesthetic technique
occurred. The findings of this study suggest that moderate hypotensive
anesthesia with enflurane and fentanyl supplementation may be of benefit in
scoliosis surgery by reducing blood loss, the need for blood replacement,
and operating time.