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Combined regional and general anaesthesia

Combining regional and general anaesthesia can have many advantages, particularly in patients undergoing major thoracic, abdominal or orthopaedic surgery. The use of regional anaesthetic techniques in anaesthetized children is an accepted standard of care, because needle and procedure phobias are very common and can result in severe anxiety, an inability to cooperate and sudden unpredictable movement. Epidural local anaesthetics have the potential of attenuating sympathetic hyperactivity, maintaining bowel peristalsis, sparing the use of opioids, and facilitating postoperative feeding and out-of-bed activity. Catheter techniques allow excellent and prolonged postoperative analgesia using epidural or peripheral nerve blocks. However, the superiority of regional techniques for hip fracture surgery and carotid endarterectomy has been disputed in several recent studies. As part of the combination technique, epidural block may in fact decrease blood flow in free flap surgery by a steal phenomenon, and increase intrapulmonary shunting during one-lung ventilation. The present review focuses on the use of a combination of regional and general anaesthesia for a variety of surgical procedures. It also compares the two anaesthetic techniques in elderly patients. The review is based on studies published during the past year.