Abdominal hysterectomy often results in serious post-op pain, but researchers who've compared two anesthetic approaches suggest that neuraxial techniques may provide patients with a smoother recovery.
For a study in the Sept. 18 issue of the journal Anesthesia & Analgesia, researchers at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago observed the outcomes of 70 women who underwent the procedure, some of whom were administered general and some neuraxial anesthesia.
The physicians scored the patients' quality of recovery through a questionnaire given at 24 hours post-op, as well as through patients' self-reported pain scores and their post-op opioid consumption.
They found that the neuraxial group not only had higher recovery quality scores than the general group did, but also lower pain scores and opioid consumption amounts.
These results, and neuraxial anesthesia opioid-sparing effects, led them to conclude that "in the absence of contraindications, neuraxial anesthesia seems to be a better anesthetic plan for those patients."
David Bernard
