Occurrence of Post Dural Puncture Headache in Patients Undergoing Lower Limb Surgery under Spinal Anaesthesia: A Descriptive Observational Study

Aims: Regional anaesthesia is preferred for many surgeries, more so for surgeries on the limbs. Surgeries belowthe umbilicus are usually done under spinal anaesthesia as it provides adequate intraoperative analgesia, musclerelaxation and reflex suppression. To understand the current status and magnitude of this problem in our set up,we conducted this descriptive observational study to see the occurrence of PDPH in patients of who had undergonelower limb surgery under spinal anaesthesia.Methods and Material: The study was conducted in the department of anaesthesia, Department of orthopedic atS.M.S. hospital and trauma centre, attached to S.M.S. Medical College, Jaipur. A Hospital based descriptiveobservational study. Sample size was calculated 729 cases and required at 95% confidence and 2% absolute errorto verify the expected 9.5% PDPH in case of spinal anaesthesia.Statistical Analysis: Data has been entered in excel and statistical analysis was performed with the SPSS, version21 for Windows statistical software package (SPSS inc., Chicago, IL, USA). The Categorical data was presentedas numbers (percent) and were compared among groups using Chi square test.The quantitative data was presented as mean and standard deviation. Probability was considered to be significantif less than 0.05.Conclusion: PDPH occurs more frequently when the number of prick are more than one other factor like age,sex, waist hip ratio, time to ambulation do not contribute substantially.25G Quincke's needle is a good choice forsuccessful, uneventful spinal anaesthesia in adequately trained hands (PDPH 1.2%) Also 25 G needles withQuincke type bevel are comfortable for training new post-graduates whereas finer needle may require introducer.