High spinal nerve block for large bowel anastomosis. A retrospective study.

In a retrospective study, 68 large bowel anastomoses carried out on patients under subarachnoid or extradural spinal nerve block with light general anaesthesia were compared with 26 anastomoses on patients receiving general anaesthesia alone. Dehiscence occurred in 7.4% of anastomoses performed under spinal nerve block compared with 23.1% in the control group. In patients receiving morphine, anastomotic dehiscence occurred after 15.2% of operations, compared with 5.9% in patients receiving pethidine. These differences are not statistically significant. However, the findings indicate the need for larger prospective studies.