A retrospective examination of regional plus general anesthesia in children undergoing open heart surgery

The use of regional anesthesia in combination with general anesthesia for c hildren undergoing cardiac surgery is receiving increasing attention from c linicians. The addition of regional anesthesia may improve clinical outcome s and decrease costs as a result of the reduced need for postoperative mech anical ventilation. The goal of this retrospective chart review was to eval uate whether spinal anesthesia (SAB) or epidural anesthesia (EPID) in combi nation with general anesthesia was associated with circulatory stability, s atisfactory postoperative sedation/analgesia, and a low incidence of advers e effects. The medical records of 50 consecutive children having open heart surgery with SAB or EPID and general anesthesia between September 1996 and December 1997 were reviewed. We found no significant differences in the in cidence of clinically significant changes in vital signs, oxygen desaturati on, hypercarbia, or vomiting. Patients in the SAB group received significan tly more sedative/analgesic interventions than those in the EPID group.