[Caudal and spinal anesthesia in sub-umbilical surgery in children. Apropos of 1875 cases].

Caudal and spinal anaesthesia are two techniques widely used in European children. The aim of this retrospective study was to evaluate the applicability of this practice in developing countries. The study concerned 1875 children, 1 day to 17 years old. isobaric 0.5% bupivacaine was used for spinal anaesthesia (n = 730) and mixture a of 1% lidocaine-0.25% bupivacaine with epinephrine 1/200,000 for caudal anaesthesia (n = 1,145). Spinal anaesthesia was performed in neonates and infants (< 3 years) and caudal anaesthesia in children (aged 14 days to 17 years) undergoing urological and lower extremity surgery. No variation of heart rate, blood pressure or blood oxygen saturation (SpO2) were observed during surgery. Failure of the technique was less than 1%. These two regional anaesthesia techniques are easy to perform and are inexpensive. This is advantageous for developing countries.