Neurologic Complications of Spinal Anesthesia

Neurologic complications, although infrequent, may follow spinal or general anesthesia. There are reports in the literature of cranial nerve palsies,¹hemiplegia²and peripheral neuropathies2afollowing general as well as spinal anesthesia. Certain neurologic complications are prone to follow spinal anesthesia while others are more frequent after general anesthesia. Woltman found that convulsions, extrapyramidal rigidity and postoperative psychosis followed general anesthesia almost excluively.2aCourville has shown that the anoxic hypoxia associated with the administration of such weak anesthetic agents as nitrous oxide and ethylene can cause degenerative changes in the cerebral cortex and lenticular nucleus.³On the other hand, headache,²septic⁴and aseptic meningitis,⁵arachnoiditis,⁶neuritis,⁷myelitis⁸and the cauda equina syndrome⁹have been the complications most frequently reported following spinal anesthesia. It is on these complications, particularly the cauda equina syndrome, that our attention will be centered.