Abstract
We aimed to compare the efficacy of fluid preloading with two recently recommended fluid-vasopressor regimens for maintaining blood pressure during subarachnoid anaesthesia in the elderly. Sixty elderly patients requiring surgery for traumatic hip fractures received subarachnoid anaesthesia using 0.05 ml/kg of 0.5% heavy bupivacaine. Hypotension, i.e. systolic arterial pressure <75% of baseline, was prevented or treated by: A—normal saline 16 ml/kg plus intravenous ephedrine boluses (0.1 mg/kg); B—normal saline 8 ml/kg plus intramuscular depot ephedrine (0.5 mg/kg); or C—Haemaccel 8 ml/kg plus metaraminol infusion. Systolic arterial pressure and heart rate were recorded using custom-written computer software (Monitor, version 1.0).
Systolic arterial pressure decreased in all groups after five minutes (P<0.001). Decreases were greatest in group A (P<0.05). Heart rate increased by 7% group A and decreased by 9% in group C (P<0.05). During the first hour, hypotension was present for 47%, 25% and 20% of the time in groups A, B and C respectively and overcorrection of systolic arterial pressure occurred in 19% of the time in group C.
We conclude that treatment A was inadequate in preventing hypotension. Treatments B and C were more effective but were associated with an increased heart rate and overcorrection of systolic arterial pressure respectively.