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Although widely used, general anesthesia may not be the best option for infant hernia repair surgery. That’s the conclusion researchers have drawn in two different studies recently published in the journal Anesthesiology.
According to researchers, infants who need hernia repair surgery have a lower risk of apnea—the temporary cessation of breathing—when they receive regional anesthesia. Researchers examined data on 772 infant hernia repair surgeries in which infants received either form of anesthesia. They found that during the first 30 minutes of surgery, infants who underwent spinal anesthesia fared better.
Commenting on these results in Outpatient Surgery, the study’s author, Andrew Davidson, M.D., said, "Our research provides the strongest evidence to date on how babies should have anesthesia for hernia repair — the most common procedure among infants. We found that spinal anesthesia is safer than general anesthesia."
While the first study shines a light on the benefits of using spinal anesthesia for infants, the second study reveals the lack of trained providers who know how to properly administer it. That study found that an additional type of anesthesia was necessary in 16.8 percent of the surgeries because of the learning curve involved in effectively using this method of anesthesia.
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