Benzocaine should no longer be used. Prilocaine should not be used in children younger than 6-mo-old, in pregnant women, or in patients taking other oxidizing drugs. The dose should be limited to 2.5 mg/kg.

Analysis 1.1. Comparison 1 Neuraxial block (spinal or epidural) versus general anaesthesia, Outcome 1 Mortality -1 month....... Analysis 1.2. Comparison 1 Neuraxial block (spinal or epidural) versus general anaesthesia, Outcome 2 Mortality -3 months...... Analysis 1.3. Comparison 1 Neuraxial block (spinal or epidural) versus general anaesthesia, Outcome 3 Mortality -6 months...... Analysis 1.4. Comparison 1 Neuraxial block (spinal or epidural) versus general anaesthesia, Outcome 4 Mortality -12 months..... Analysis 1.5. Comparison 1 Neuraxial block (spinal or epidural) versus general anaesthesia, Outcome 5 Pneumonia.

This review focuses on the use of peripheral nerves blocks as preoperative analgesia, as postoperative analgesia or as a supplement to general anaesthesia for hip fracture surgery. We undertook the update to look for new studies and to update the methods to reflect Cochrane standards.

Epidural local anaesthetics versus opioid-based analgesic regimens for postoperative gastrointestinal paralysis, vomiting and pain a er abdominal surgery.

Neuraxial blockade for the prevention of postoperative mortality and major morbidity: an overview of Cochrane systematic reviews.

An epidural containing a local anesthetic, with or without the addition of an opioid, accelerates the return of the gastrointestinal transit (high quality of evidence). An epidural containing a local anesthetic with an opioid decreases pain after an abdominal surgery (moderate quality of evidence). An epidural containing a local anesthetic does not affect the incidence of vomiting or anastomotic leak (low quality of evidence). For an open surgery, an epidural containing a local anesthetic would reduce the length of hospital stay (very low quality of evidence).

There is high-quality evidence that regional blockade reduces pain on movement within 30 minutes after block placement. There is moderate quality of evidence for a decreased risk of pneumonia, reduced time to first mobilization, and reduced cost of analgesic regimen (single-shot blocks).

The authors attempted to determine the relative importance of factors that influence bleeding during and after spinal fusion. Data from 30 ASA I patients with idiopathic scoliosis were prospectively collected and analyzed, lntraoperative bleeding was 1971 -6 831 ml (mean + SD) and correlated with the number of fused vertebrae (r = 0.66, P < 0.0001)