Review Article Cardiopulmonary Arrest in Spinal Anesthesia

Background and objectives: Spinal anesthesia is an integral part of the daily routine of countless anesthesiologists. It is considered to be a safe procedure, although some complications related to this technique, among them the most feared is cardiopulmonary arrest (cardiac arrest, CA), do exist. The real incidence of CA related to spinal anesthesia, as well as its etiology, is not known and has motivated this review article. Contents: Articles published in the last twenty years in Medline indexed journals and in a textbook were reviewed. The objective of the present review was to identify the incidence of spinal block anesthesia-related CA and the etiology of those cases. We also tried to identify possible risk factors. Finally, treatment strategies described in the literature were reviewed in order to determine the best conduct when facing a case of CA during spinal anesthesia. Conclusions: The incidence of spinal anesthesia-related CA varies, and it seems to be lower when compared to that of general anesthesia. In th