Comparison of Spinal Anesthesia and Ultrasound-Guided Combined Sciatic- Femoral Block on Perioperative Anesthesia and Postoperative Analgesic Effect in Lower Limb Surgery: A Randomized Controlled Clinical Trial

Abstract

Objective: The aim of this study was to compare the clinical efficacy and safety of an ultrasound- guided combined sciatic-femoral nerve block (SFNB) with spinal anesthesia (SA) in lower limb surgical procedures in terms of clinical properties, postoperative analgesia, and adverse outcomes. Methods: This prospective, randomized study comprised 60 patients aged 18–65 years with an American Society of Anesthesiologists physical status of I-III scheduled for a lower limb surgical procedure. The patients were randomly divided into 2 groups to receive either SA (n=30) or an ultrasound-guided combined SFNB (n=30). The duration of the intervention, time to achieve surgical anesthesia, analgesia duration, intraoperative hemodynamic parameters, patient satisfaction, quality of the postoperative analgesia, and adverse outcomes were recorded and analyzed. Results: The duration of the intervention, time to onset of sensorial and motor block, time to start of surgery, motor block reversal time, and time to first postoperative analgesic were significantly longer in the SFNB group (p