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Editorial
. 2018 May 3:11:25-29.
doi: 10.2147/LRA.S157650. eCollection 2018.

Spinal anesthesia instead of general anesthesia for infants undergoing tendon Achilles lengthening

Mohammad AlSuhebani  1 , David P Martin  1   2 , Lance M Relland  1   2 , Tarun Bhalla  1   2 , Allan C Beebe  3 , Amanda T Whitaker  3 , Walter Samora  3 , Joseph D Tobias  1   2
Affiliations
Editorial

Spinal anesthesia instead of general anesthesia for infants undergoing tendon Achilles lengthening

Mohammad AlSuhebani et al. Local Reg Anesth. .

Abstract

Spinal anesthesia (SA) has been used relatively sparingly in the pediatric population, as it is typically reserved for patients in whom the perceived risk of general anesthesia is high due to comorbid conditions. Recently, concern has been expressed regarding the potential long-term neurocognitive effects of general anesthesia during the early stages of life. In view of this, our center has developed a program in which SA may be used as the sole agent for applicable surgical procedures. While this approach in children is commonly used for urologic or abdominal surgical procedures, there have been a limited number of reports of its use for orthopedic procedures in this population. We present the use of SA for 6 infants undergoing tendon Achilles lengthening, review the use of SA in orthopedic surgery, describe our protocols and dosing regimens, and discuss the potential adverse effects related to this technique.

Keywords: orthopedic surgery; spinal anesthesia; tendon Achilles lengthening.

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Conflict of interest statement

Disclosure The authors report no conflicts of interest in this work.

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