Comparative Study of Regional Versus General Anaesthesia for Common Surgical Procedures: A Multi-Centre Experience from Tertiary Care Hospitals in Pakistan

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Objective: To compare perioperative outcomes, complication rates and satisfaction of surgeries with regional anaesthesia (RA) and general anaesthesia (GA) in patients undergoing common surgeries in tertiary care hospitals of Pakistan. Study Design: Comparative Cross-sectional study. Place & Duration of Study: Departments of Anaesthesiology in three tertiary care hospitals in Pakistan from October 2025 to March 2026. Methodology: A total of 110 patients who were able to give informed consent and were aged ≥ 18 years for elective common surgical procedures were enrolled and randomly divided into two groups: regional anaesthesia (RA; n=55) and general anaesthesia (GA; n=55). Intraoperative hypotension, visual analogue scale (VAS) pain score, PACU stay, and time to mobilisation, analgesic requirements, complications, and satisfaction scores were collected that allowed for a comparison of peri-operative parameters. The data were analyzed using SPSS version 26.0. Results: The complication rate was significantly lower for the RA group than for GA (45.5% vs 76.4%; p<0.001). RA was associated with significantly lower VAS pain scores (4.2 ± 1.3 vs 7.6 ± 1.8; p<0.001), shorter PACU stay (1.4 ± 0.6 vs 2.6 ± 0.9 hours; p<0.001), earlier mobilisation (3.2 ± 1.1 vs 5.9 ± 1.7 hours; p<0.001), reduced analgesic requirements, and higher patient satisfaction scores (4.3 ± 0.6 vs 3.5 ± 0.8; p<0.001). PONV was significantly higher in GA group vs RA group (32.7% vs 10.9%; p=0.006). Conclusion: Regional anaesthesia has better peri-operative outcomes, less complication rates and better satisfaction with care for common surgical procedures when compared to general anaesthesia. In resource-limited environments, and when clinically indicated, RA should be the preferred anaesthetic technique.