REGIONAL ANESTHESIA--there are several types of regional anesthesia:
spinal anesthesia, epidural anesthesia, and regional block anesthesia.
Spinal Anesthesia involves an injection of anesthesia into the low
back on into the spinal fluid (opposite of a "spinal tap",
where a needle goes into the spinal fluid to withdraw a sample--to
check for meningitis). When anesthesia is injected into the spinal
fluid (CSF-cerebrospinal fluid), it numbs the spinal nerves that are
present in the spinal fluid and blocks pain in the lower part of the
body. It can work anywhere from the chest on down. 'saddle blocks'
work to numb only from the waist down. A patient can be awake during
surgery when under spinal anesthesia, because they have no sensation
or feeling in the parts of the body being operated on. Of course,
only certain types of surgery can be done under Regional Anesthesia.
An example of types of surgery that can be done under regional/spinal/epidural
anesthesia include: cesarean section (CSX, or C-Section), orthopedic
procedure such as knee arthroscopy and hip or knee joint surgery,
lower abdominal surgeries, urologic procedures like TURP or prostatectomy,
and gynecologic cerclage (suture around an incompetent cervix), BTL
(bilateral tubal ligation), LBTL (laparoscopic bilateral tubal ligations).
That said, spinal and epidural anesthesia is NOT used for outpatient
surgeries very often. Out patient surgery is usually done under IV
sedation or General
Anesthesia.
