[Evaluation of skin temperature of patients under spinal anesthesia during cesarean section].

Temperature changes of the first finger and toe were evaluated in patients under spinal anesthesia. One hundred and thirty female patients who were to undergo cesarean section were selected for this study. During spinal anesthesia the changes in skin temperature were classified in three patterns. The first pattern showed a rise of the first finger and toe temperature just after intrathecal injection of 0.3% dibucaine (hand and foot type, n = 77). The second pattern showed only a rise of the first toe temperature (foot type, n = 55), and the third pattern showed no change in the first finger and toe temperature (unchanged type, n = 3). The results of cold description tests were T5 +/- 2 (mean +/- SD) in hand and foot type, T8 +/- 2 in foot type and L1 +/- 6 in unchanged type. The skin temperature pattern was affected by the position of the patient. When the patients were placed in a head down position, 38 cases of foot type showed a rise of the first finger temperature, and 1 case of unchanged type showed a rise of the first finger and toe temperature. In these cases the operative procedure was done under spinal anesthesia. The remaining 4 cases of foot type and 2 cases of unchanged type needed another anesthetic method. In cesarean section under spinal anesthesia, skin temperature pattern of hand and foot type seems desirable. Simultaneous monitoring of hand and foot (first fingertip temperature) seems to be useful to evaluate the height of spinal anesthesia.