What are the complications of spinal Anaesthesia?

Side effects of general anesthesia include:

temporary confusion and memory loss, although this is more common in the elderly.

dizziness.

difficulty passing urine.

bruising or soreness from the IV drip.

nausea and vomiting.

shivering and feeling cold.

sore throat, due to the breathing tube.

Spinal anaesthesia (or spinal anesthesia), also called spinal block, subarachnoid block, intradural block and intrathecal block, is a form of regional anaesthesia involving the injection of a local anaesthetic into the subarachnoid space, generally through a fine needle, usually 9 cm (3.5 in) long.

Nerve blocks are used for pain treatment and management. Often a group of nerves, called a plexus or ganglion, that causes pain to a specific organ or body region can be blocked with the injection of medication into a specific area of the body. The injection of this nerve-numbing substance is called a nerve block.

The procedure is approximately the same, but generally an epidural catheter is left in your back, so that you can get a constant infusion of numbing medication for as long as your labor lasts, whereas a spinal is just one shot of medication.

“For a patient to die on the operating table is rare — but for patients with serious problems in their medical history, post-traumatic stress after a long operation can under some circumstances lead to death.” Complications relating to anesthesia are rare, and can usually be brought under control very quickly.

You may feel some stinging when numbing medicine is first injected into the site, but the spinal block itself doesn’t hurt. A spinal differs from an epidural in two ways: First, it’s delivered directly into the spinal fluid (the epidural doesn’t penetrate the membrane that surrounds your spine).

Lidocaine, tetracaine, and bupivacaine are the local anesthetic agents most commonly employed for spinal anesthesia in the U.S. Lidocaine provides a short duration of anesthesia and is primarily useful for surgical and obstetrical procedures lasting less than one hour.

This can occur if the epidural or spinal needle or the epidural catheter damages a single nerve, a group of nerves or the spinal cord. Contact with a nerve may cause ‘pins and needles’ or a brief shooting pain. This does not mean that the nerve is damaged, but if the needle is not repositioned, damage can occur.

It is easy to confuse a spinal block and spinal epidural because they are both injections into the spinal area. For a spinal block, narcotics or anesthetic is injected once with a needle. For a spinal epidural or combined spinal epidural, a catheter is placed in the epidural space to allow continuous anesthesia.

General anesthesia is an anesthetic used to induce unconsciousness during surgery. The medicine is either inhaled through a breathing mask or tube, or given through an intravenous (IV) line. A breathing tube may be inserted into the windpipe to maintain proper breathing during surgery.

Epidural medications fall into a class of drugs called local anesthetics, such as bupivacaine, chloroprocaine, or lidocaine. They are often delivered in combination with opioids or narcotics such as fentanyl and sufentanil in order to decrease the required dose of local anesthetic.

Anesthesia. Most C-sections are done under regional anesthesia, which numbs only the lower part of your body — allowing you to remain awake during the procedure. Common choices include a spinal block and an epidural block.

It is a common side-effect of spinal anesthesia and lumbar puncture and may occasionally accidentally occur in epidural anesthesia. Leakage of cerebrospinal fluid through the dura mater puncture causes reduced fluid levels in the brain and spinal cord, and may lead to the development of PDPH hours or days later.

Epidural Injection. The anaesthetist injects the epidural anaesthetic into a catheter which has been placed into the epidural space. This method usually provides pain relief for 1-2 hours, and once it starts to wear off, you can have a top up.

The long acting steroid starts working in about 2 to 5 days and its effect can last for several days to a few months. How many epidural injections do I need to have? If the first injection does not relieve your symptoms within two weeks, you will be recommended to have a second injection.

An epidural steroid injection (ESI) is a minimally invasive procedure that can help relieve neck, arm, back, and leg pain caused by inflamed spinal nerves. ESI may be performed to relieve pain caused by spinal stenosis, spondylolysis, or disc herniation.

The most basic epidural steroid injection side effects include the following:

Infection and bleeding at the injection site.

Sleeplessness.

Headache.

Anxiety.

High blood sugar.

Temporarily increased pain.

Stomach ulcers.

Cataracts.

If your slipped disc looks more like a herniated disc, your body can potentially begin to heal through the process of resorption. If you are still dealing with persistent symptoms after several months of conservative treatment and waiting for your disc to heal on its own, your doctor may recommend spine surgery.

So when a herniated disc occurs in the mid back it can be extremely serious. In severe cases, the pressure on the spinal cord can lead to paralysis below the waist. Fortunately, herniated discs are not nearly as common in the thoracic spine as in the low back or lumbar spine.

Exercise is a common component of herniated disc treatment. Taking a proactive approach to your recovery with physical activity will reduce your pain and help ensure the long-term health of your back. A herniated disc may require 1 or 2 days rest to alleviate pain.