Regional Anaesthesia - Complications

Complications

Unlike a minor local anaesthetic infiltration to allow a wound to be sutured, or a skin lesion to be excised, regional anaesthesia may involve large doses of local anaesthetic, or administration of the local anaesthetic very close to, or directly into the central nervous system. Therefore there is a risk of complications from local anaesthetic toxicity (such as seizures and cardiac arrest) and for a syndrome similar to spinal shock.

Most regional anaesthetic techniques, even in expert hands, have a failure rate of 1–10%. Therefore, general anaesthesia may become necessary even when a procedure was initially planned to be conducted under a regional technique.

For these reasons, regional anaesthesia is only ever conducted in an environment that is fully equipped and staffed to provide safe general anaesthesia should it be needed.