Comparison Of Landmark Versus Ultrasound Guided Lumbar Puncture Technique For Spinal Anaesthesia In Obese Patients.

Obesity poses special considerations in the medicine especially during anaesthetic procedures due to change in anatomical and physiological status. However, in obese individual lumbar puncture is technically difficult because of increased subcutaneous fat and reduced visibility of typical landmark structures. In these patients the traditional lumbar puncture method is more difficult, greatly increasing the possibility of failure leads to more attempts at location, increased patient discomfort, nerve injury and post-dural puncture headache. In this study the comparison of the landmark-based technique and ultrasound-guided technique was conducted based on several criteria and differences were noted with regard to both technical and clinical aspects. In this perspective, we hypothesized that Ultrasound-guided spinal anaesthesia would result in reduced puncture attempts and improved success rates at first attempt when compared with the conventional landmark-guided technique in obese patients.