Complications during spinal anesthesia: a prospective study.

Complications during spinal anesthesia were studied prospectively in 1881 patients. Twenty-six percent of the patients suffered from one or more complications. The most common complications were hypotension (16.4%) and bradycardia (8.9%). The risk for hypotension was found to be higher with increasing age of patients (p less than 0.005). Higher peak sensory level significantly increased the risk for hypotension (p less than 0.0001), bradycardia (p less than 0.0001) and nausea (p less than 0.0001). Female patients suffered significantly more hypotension (p less than 0.001), nausea (p less than 0.001) and vomiting (p less than 0.001) than males. Cementation of prosthesis and deflation of the leg tourniquet were other risk factors demonstrated in this study.