Letter: Spine Surgery Under Spinal vs General Anesthesia: Prospective Analysis of Quality of Life, Fatigue, and Cognition.

Abstract

To the Editor: We read with great interest the recent publication by De Biase et al1 entitled “Spine Surgery Under Spinal vs General Anesthesia: Prospective Analysis of Quality of Life, Fatigue, and Cognition.” The authors have compared spinal anesthesia with general anesthesia in elective spine surgery to look at the differences in postoperative fatigue, postoperative cognitive dysfunction, and quality of life. They have calculated the sample size to be 25 patients in each group for a total of 50 patients. Although the authors have claimed to look at the abovementioned outcomes in spinal surgery, they have included only patients who are undergoing lumbar spine surgery in the sample. Hence, the results of this study might vary among other segments of the spine such as cervical, thoracic, sacrum, and coccyx. They have also mixed anterior and posterior approaches while reporting the outcomes, while a complication in the anterior cervical approach may have completely different outcomes than a complication in the posterior lumbar approach. Therefore, the quality of life and fatigue may vary completely differently. We suggest a more appropriate title for the study: “Lumbar Spine Surgery Under Spinal vs General Anesthesia: Prospective Analysis of Quality of Life, Fatigue, and Cognition.”