Comparative Study between Continuous Thoracic Epidural vs. Thoracic Spinal Anaesthesia in Breast Surgery

Abstract

Objective: The aim of this work is to compare between thoracic epidural anesthesia (TEA) and segmental thoracic spinal anesthesia (TSA) conducted for breast surgeries as regard to hemodynamic changes (blood pressure, heart rate, oxygen saturation, ETCO2), postoperative pain control, postoperative analgesic requirements, surgeon satisfaction, postoperative ambulation time and perioperative complication. Setting: Al-Hussein and Sayed Galal hospitals. Patients and Methods: This work was done upon 40 female patient undergoing breast surgeries. Patients were divided randomly into 2 equal groups according to the type of anesthetic technique had been chosen. Group I were anaesthetized by thoracic epidural anesthesia and group II by segmental thoracic spinal anesthesia. Results: Recovery and ambulation time was more or less equal in the both groups. This is important since the patient can readily return to her family and social environment and can decrease the cost of the procedure, although this was not specifically assessed in this study. Post-operative pain was compared at the time 0, 1, 2, 4 and 8 hour by using VAS. Conclusion: We found that epidural blockade a preferred choice of anesthetic management for breast surgery.