Abstract

Effects of anesthesia, side-effects, complications, and postoperative morbidity were studied in 244 nonrandomized patients who underwent major hip surgery. One hundred twelve patients received spinal analgesia with 22.5 mg of glucose-free bupivacaine to which 0.3 mg of morphine was added. One hundred thirty-two patients received general anesthesia with halothane. In the spinal group, 79% of the patients had no or slight pain during the first 40 hours after the spinal injection. Respiratory depression (<12 breaths/min) was found in 11% of the cases in the spinal group and could be expected any time during the first 28 hours after the injection. Postoperative hospital stay was 3½ days shorter in the spinal group because of a lower frequency of prostheses dislocation. There were no neurological sequelae that could be related to the intrathecal injection of bupivacaine and morphine. The conclusion from this study is that bupivacaine-morphine spinal analgesia is an excellent anesthetic technique for major hip surgery if close postoperative monitoring is practicable for 24 hours following surgery.