Spinal anaesthesia for ambulatory urology surgery: A comparison of chloroprocaine with fentanyl and bupivacaine with fentanyl

Background: Spinal anesthesia is an attractive choice for ambulatory surgery of the lower abdomen andlower limbs but it requires a local anesthetic agent of short duration with minimal side effects.We comparethe effect of intrathecal chloroprocaine with fentanyl to bupivacaine with fentanyl in ambulatory urologysurgery.Materials and Methods: Hundred patients aged 18 – 60 years undergoing ambulatory urology surgeryrandomly divided into two groups of 50 each. Group A received 40 mg of 1% chloroprocaine with 20mcgfentanyl and group B received 7.5 mg of 0.5% bupivacaine and 20mcg fentanyl. Sensory and motor blockcharacteristics, time to ambulation, void and time for ready to discharge from hospital were recorded.Results: There was no difference in terms of demographic data and duration of surgery. Peak sensory blocklevel was T5 in group A and T4 in group B. The mean time to reach the peak block level was similar inboth groups (P=0.228). Time to two-segment regression and regression to the S2 segment were shorter ingroup A (PThe length of stay in PACU was similar in both the groups (P=0.729). Time to ambulation, time for firstvoid and time for ready to discharge from hospital were significantly shorter in group A compared to groupB (P Conclusions: Chloroprocaine and fentanyl is a better choice for ambulatory urology surgery in comparisonto low dose bupivacaine and fentanyl.Keywords: Chloroprocaine, Bupivacaine, Fentanyl, Ambulatory, Urology surgery.