Spinal anesthesia in ambulatory surgery

Spinal anesthesia is a safe alternative to general anesthesia but remains underrepresented in the ambulatory setting. Most concerns relate to low flexibility of spinal anesthesia duration and the management of urinary retention in the outpatient setting.

This review focuses on the characterization and safety of the local anesthetics that are available to adapt spinal anesthesia very flexibly to the needs of ambulatory surgery.

Furthermore, recent studies on the management of postoperative urinary retention provide evidence for safe, but report wider discharge criteria and much lower hospital admission rates.

With the local anesthetics that have current approval for usage in spinal anesthesia, most requirements for ambulatory surgeries can be met. The reported evidence on local anesthetics without approval supports clinically established off-label use and can improve the results even further.