Comparison of safety and efficacy of general and spinal anesthesia in kidney transplantation: Evaluation of the peri-operative outcome

Abstract

General anesthesia is a routine anesthetic technique for kidney transplantation. This study evaluated and compared the peri-operative hemodynamic, cardiopulmonary and general condition status in patients in whom spinal anesthesia (SA) or general anesthesia (GA) was used for kidney transplantation. A prospective study was carried out on 49 consecutive patients who underwent kidney transplantation with either GA (19 patients, mean age 37.53 ± 11.78 years) or SA (30 patients, mean age 42.17 ± 14.89 years), without any selection bias. One obese patient with a body mass index of 32.52 kg/m 2 died 22 days after transplantation in the GA group. One other patient, who developed severe nausea and vomiting, was changed from SA to GA. There were no statistical differences in gender, mean age, body mass index and hemodynamic and cardiopulmonary status between the two groups. Time to post-operative diet tolerance, defecation, ambulation and adequate urination were significantly better in the SA group. The mean operation time was 264.32 ± 18.91 and 233 ± 15.12 min in the GA and SA groups, respectively. Brisk diuresis was seen in all patients except one in the SA group. Our study suggests that kidney transplantation under SA is feasible and safe, particularly for patients who cannot receive GA.