Analysis of bupivacaine and ropivacaine-related cardiac arrests in regional anesthesia: A systematic review of case reports.

Regional anesthesia as a component of multimodal analgesia protocols has become more and more a part of modern perioperative pain management. The widespread adoption of ultrasound guidance in regional anesthesia has surely played an important role in that growth and it has significantly improved patient safety, decreased the incidence of block failure, cardiac arrest, and reduced complication rates. The objective of this systematic review is to extract, analyze, and synthesize clinical information about bupivacaine and ropivacaine related cardiac arrest that we might have a clearer picture of the clinical presentation. The literature search identified 268 potentially relevant publications and 22 relevant case reports were included in the review. Patients' demographics, types of regional anesthesia, hypotension, heart rhythm disorders, seizures, cardiac arrest, fatal outcome, recommendations and limitations on prevention and treatment of bupivacaine and ropivacaine related cardiac arrest are analyzed and discussed in the systematic review. Both bupivacaine and ropivacaine-induced local anesthetic toxicity can result in cardiac arrest. Lipid emulsion, telemetry, local anesthetic toxicity resuscitation training appears to be promising in improvement of survival but more research is needed. Improvement and encouragement of reporting the local anesthetic toxicity are warranted to improve the quality of information that can be analyzed in order to make more precise conclusion.