Ureteroscopy under spinal versus general anaesthesia: morbidity and stone clearance.

OBJECTIVE To compare morbidity and stone clearance by ureteroscopy carried out under spinal anaesthesia with that carried out under general anaesthesia. STUDY DESIGN Quasi-experimental study. PLACE AND DURATION OF STUDY The study was conducted at the Kidney Centre, Postgraduate Training Institute, Karachi, from September 2005 to December 2006. PATIENTS AND METHODS A total number of 60 patients were enrolled for the study. All patients underwent ureteroscopic procedure for a calculus disease, using a semi-rigid ureteroscope of 10 Fr. These patients were divided in 2 groups of 30 patients, receiving general or spinal anaesthesia. Operative time, stone clearance, hospital stay, intra- and postoperative complications and visual analogue score for pain were noted in each case. RESULTS There were 30 patients each in both groups, with 73% males and 27% females in group A (general anaesthesia) and 93% males and 7% females in group B (spinal anaesthesia). Mean age of the patients were 33.9 and 36.9 years in groups A and B respectively. The average stone size was 0.79 cm in group A and 1.14 cm in group B (p=0.001). Duration of surgery was 41.4+/-1.29 minutes in group A and 30.5+/-2.13 minutes in group B (p=0.033). Mean hospital stay was 21.6 and 18.1 hours in group A and B respectively (p=0.073). Mean visual analogue score for pain in group A was 3.1 and group B was 1.8. CONCLUSION Ureteroscopy under spinal anaesthesia resulted in decreased length of operative time and shortened hospital stay in this series and did not carry any additional risk of major complications.