Comparative evaluation of segmental spinal anaesthesia with conventional spinal anaesthesia in endoscopic transurethral surgery

There are a number of advantages of thoracic segmental spinal anaesthesia firstly, there is no sympathetic blockade of lower limbs causing significantly lesser venodilation in the lower extremities and therefore there is lesser decrease in the preload to heart which provides better hemodynamic stability. Secondly, nerve roots in the thoracic segments of spinal cord are thinner,as well as the amount of CSF at thoracic levels is comparatively less, which favours efficient blockade with lower doses of anaesthetic drugs. Thirdly, the patients have motor control over their legs during the surgery and patients exhibit a better level of satisfaction and decreased anxiety during the procedure.Various studies have concluded that segmental spinal anaesthesia is a safe and effective method for many surgeries like laparoscopic cholecystectomies, breast cancer lumpectomies, and abdominal cancer surgeries. However, this technique in endoscopic transurethral surgeries remains unacknowledged.

Encouraged by the results of above studies, we plan to study the efficacy of using segmental spinal anaesthesia as the sole regional anaesthetic technique for endoscopic transurethral surgery. We hypothesized that segmental spinal anaesthesia could be a potential alternative to spinal anaesthesia for patients undergoing transurethral surgery.