Indian Journal of Clinical Anaesthesia 2019;6(4):538–542 Content available at: iponlinejournal.com Indian Journal of Clinical Anaesthesia Journal homepage: www.innovativepublication.com Original Research Artic;e Retrospective evaluation of general and regional anaesthesia among hypertensive patients undergoing surgery M Vasantha Kumar 1, *, B Ravi 1 1 Dept. of Anesthesiology, ACS Medical College and Hospital, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India ARTICLE INFO Article history: Received 13-08-2019 Accepted 21-09-2019 Available online 20-11-2019 Keywords: General anaesthesia Hypertension Regional anaesthesia Visual analog scale (VAS) pain Systolic blood pressure Diastolic blood pressure. ABSTRACT Introduction: Hypertensive patients under the effect of general anaesthesia are traditionally found to be hemodynamically unstable in comparison to normotensive patients. The application of regional anaesthetics has been widely preferred by surgeons for lower-extremity surgery, but the use of general anaesthesia during such surgeries are also reported, regardless of evidence that regional anaesthesia is safe and may confer some advantages over general anaesthesia. Materials and Methods: The data of 100 hypertensive patients collected from June 2017 to May 2019. The blood pressure, diastolic blood pressure, heart rate and SPO2 (%) recorded before surgery, during surgery and post-surgery. All the statistical analyses were performed using the SPSS 24.0 software. Results: It was observed from the study that the systolic and diastolic blood pressure among the patients pre, during and post surgery under general anaesthesia was found to be stable throughout while the systolic blood pressure among the hypertensive patients under regional anaesthesia was found to be lower during surgery. However, the levels reached to the normal levels post surgery. The median Visual Analog Scale (VAS) pain score among the patients in general anaesthesia group was found to rise almost immediately after the completion of the surgery reaching a peak during the 3 rd hour of post surgery. However, the VAS pain score among the patients of the regional anaesthesia group was found to rise only after the 2 nd or 3 rd hour of post surgery. Conclusion: The study therefore provides evidence that there were increased intra-operative fluctuations and reduced post operative pain among the patients in the regional anaesthesia group in comparison to those under general anaesthesia group. © 2019 Published by Innovative Publication. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) 1. Introduction Hypertension is the most important risk factor for chronic disease burden in India. 1 Studies from various parts of India have reported high prevalence of hypertension. Hypertension (HTN) exerts a substantial public health burden on cardiovascular health status and healthcare systems in India. HTN is directly responsible for 57% of all stroke deaths and 24% of all coronary heart disease (CHD) deaths in India. The WHO rates HTN as one of the most important causes of premature death worldwide. 2,3 It has been found that hypertensive patients under the * Corresponding author. E-mail address: saratovvasanth@gmail.com (M. Vasantha Kumar). effect of general anaesthesia are traditionally found to be hemodynamically unstable in comparison to normotensive patients. The administration of general anaesthesia is also reported to cause abnormal cardiovascular response among the patients in comparison to those administered with regional anaesthesia. 4 According to previous studies the application of regional anaesthetics has been widely preferred by surgeons for lower-extremity surgery, but the use of general anaesthesia during such surgeries are also reported, regardless of evidence that regional anaesthesia is safe and may confer some advantages over general anaesthesia. 5 The aim of this study was to retrospectively compare amid general anaesthesia and regional anaesthesia in hypertensive https://doi.org/10.18231/j.ijca.2019.105 2394-4781/© 2019 Innovative Publication, All rights reserved. 538