Mr. Dusenberg assured the reader that spinal anesthesia is a safe option for knee replacement surgery. He explained the difference between general and regional anesthesia: While regional anesthesia provides pain relief to a large area of the body through the injection of medication close to related nerves, general anesthesia produces a state of unconsciousness where the patient remains asleep.
He said spinal anesthesia is a commonly used and safe alternative to general anesthesia and added that spinal anesthesia has some distinct advantages over general anesthesia. For example, patients are less likely to experience post-operative nausea and vomiting, and the anesthesia recovery period is generally more pleasant.
He said the overall risk of a spinal anesthetic is somewhere between 1 and 3 percent, depending on the research.
Read the HRTNews report on spinal anesthesia.
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