Neuraxial pathology and regional anesthesia: an education guide to decision-making

Abstract

In current clinical practice, spinal anesthesia and analgesia techniques—including epidural and subarachnoid procedures—are frequently executed without imaging like X-ray or epidurography. Unrecognized spinal pathology has resulted in serious morbidity in the context of performing neuraxial anesthesia. Typically, preoperative consultations incorporate a patient’s medical history but lack a detailed spinal examination or consideration of recent MRI or CT scans. In contrast, within the domain of pain clinics, a multidisciplinary approach involving anesthesiologists and neuroradiologists is common. Such collaborative settings rely on exhaustive clinical history and scrutinization of recent imaging studies, which may influence the decision to proceed with invasive spinal interventions. There are no epidemiological data concerning rates of the different baseline pathologies that would potentially pose morbidity risks from neuraxial procedures, but the most common among these is canal stenosis, which significantly affects almost 20% of people over 60 years of age. This paper aims to elucidate these critical findings and advocate for incorporating meticulous preoperative assessments for individuals slated for spinal anesthesia or analgesia procedures, thereby attempting to mitigate potential risks.