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Ultrasound-assisted Spinal Anaesthesia in Patients With Difficult Anatomical Landmarks

NCT00956137 · Status: COMPLETED · Phase: NA · Type: INTERVENTIONAL · Enrollment: 180

Last updated 2017-12-04

No results posted yet for this study

Summary

Spinal anesthesia is the technique of choice in patients undergoing total joint arthroplasty at Toronto Western Hospital (UHN). The most significant predictor of the ease of performance of spinal anesthesia is the quality of palpable surface landmarks (the spinous processes of the lumbar vertebrae). These surface landmarks may be absent, indistinct or distorted in many of the patients presenting for total joint arthroplasty. This is because of obesity, previous spinal surgery, scoliosis and degenerative changes of aging. The investigators have shown in a previous study that a pre-procedural ultrasound scan of the spine can reliably identify an appropriate site for needle insertion in spinal anesthesia, and that this results in a high success rate on the first needle insertion attempt (84% vs 61-64% in published studies). The investigators therefore believe that this ultrasound-assisted technique of spinal anesthesia is extremely useful, especially in patients with poor-quality surface landmarks. However there are no published randomized controlled trials to date that compare the efficacy of the ultrasound-assisted technique with the traditional surface landmark-guided technique of spinal anesthesia.

Conditions

  • Spinal Anesthesia

Interventions

PROCEDURE

Ultrasound guidance

ultrasound imaging

PROCEDURE

Manual palpation

Manual Palpation of vertebra

Sponsors & Collaborators

  • University Health Network, Toronto

    lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

  • Ki Jinn Chin, MD · University Health Network, Toronto

Study Design

Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Purpose
TREATMENT
Masking
NONE
Model
PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age
18 Years
Max Age
80 Years
Sex
ALL
Healthy Volunteers
No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start
2009-05-31
Primary Completion
2010-06-30
Completion
2010-10-31

Countries

  • Canada

Study Locations

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Read the full study record

This page highlights key information. For complete eligibility criteria, study locations, investigator contacts, and the full protocol, visit the original record on ClinicalTrials.gov.

View NCT00956137 on ClinicalTrials.gov