A review of the frequency of post-dural puncture headaches in patients undergoing spinal anesthesia for elective surgical procedure

Abstract:

Background

Frequent attempts at insertion, block failure, and post-dural puncture headaches are the most common disadvantage of spinal anesthesia. This review article was designed to re-evaluate these unfavorable effects of subarachnoid block

Objective:

The primary aim of this review article is to determine the frequency of post-dural puncture headaches in patients undergoing spinal anesthesia for elective surgical procedures.

Methods and Material

This study is approved by the research and ethical committee of the northwest institute of health sciences Peshawar. The data is collected by Meta-analysis of various published articles. All those points which are linked to our studies or have some importance to our studies have been gathered from these published articles. Papers other than RCT were also excluded.

Results:

The overall cumulative incidence of post-dural puncture headache was found to be significantly higher in patients in whom the Quincke type of needle was used than in those whose spinal anesthetics were administered using the pencil point needle.

Conclusion

Overall this study concluded that the thicker the needle used more will be the incidence of PDPH and the less will be the chance of failure, and the thinner the needle used less will be the incidence of PDPH and high will be the chance of failure.

The incidence of post-Dural puncture headaches can be significantly reduced in the obstetric population.If the pencil point spinal needle were to be routinely used. We recommend that the Quincke needles should not be used in the obstetric population.

Keywords:

Post-dural puncture headache, Spinal anesthesia, Quincke’s needle, Whitacre’s needle, spinal needles, subarachnoid block