Spinal anesthesia: a review of theoretical aspects and description of the procedure

Abstract

INTRODUCTION: Spinal anesthesia is a common procedure in the arsenal of any anesthesiologist; therefore, it is of fundamental importance that the professional who performs the blockade has knowledge about aspects related to the different mechanisms of application, as well as the clinical responses to the different levels of blockade. Therefore, the objective of this study is to improve the understanding of the procedure, approaching important aspects with the purpose of generating more information for the professional, thus reducing failure rates and negative outcomes.. METHODOLOGY: To construct this study, literature was consulted and selected using the National Library of Medicine (Pubmed/Medline), Sociedade Brasileira de Anestesiologia (SBA) and Scientific Electronic Library Online (SciELO) databases. The search terms were: spinal anesthesia; spinal blocks; neuro-axial blocks; complications; management; epidemiology; treatment; prevention. Searches were filtered by publication date as of January 2007, human studies, and availability in Portuguese and English; review articles, protocols, guidelines, and manuals were included. In addition, the following textbooks were used: "Anesthesiology - 4th edition", "Manual of clinical anesthesiology - 7th edition", "Functional neuroanatomy - 3rd edition", "Spinal anesthesia treatise", and "Routines in anesthesiology and perioperative medicine”. CONCLUSION: Representing one of the fundamental resources of an anesthesiologist, spinal anesthesia is a broad and almost inexhaustible topic. Moreover, new works are published periodically, ensuring that professionals continue to refine their knowledge constantly. This work is an example of this and urges the reader to seek further sources.