REGIONAL VERSUS GENERAL-ANESTHESIA FOR BONE-MARROW HARVESTING

Study Objective: To compare regional versus general anesthesia for bon e marrow harvesting. Design: Retrospective study. Setting: Inpatients at a bone marrow transplantation unit of a university medical center. Patients: One hundred sixty-two donors: 63 healthy patients donating h eterologous marrow, 99 patients donating autologous marrow. Interventi ons: Anesthesia and patient charts from 1986 to 1990 were reviewed. Me asurements and Main Results: Regionally anesthetized patients required less transfused blood in the perioperative period, even though more b one marrow was aspirated. This group also required less postoperative analgesia. We found no difference between the groups with regard to le ngth of hospitalization or amount of colloid required in the periopera tive period. Conclusions: Our data suggest that both modes of anesthes ia can be safely administered. Further investigations should be carrie d out to determine whether the two types of anesthesia, regional and g eneral, are equivalent.