How painful is spinal anesthesia?
Since spinal anaesthesia is one of the anaesthetic procedures close to the spinal cord, it is superior to other methods in avoiding and fighting pain. At the puncture site on the back, all descending nerve fibers are anesthetized, so that they can no longer conduct the pain. The motor fibers are also paralyzed.
Thus, the patient feels no pain whatsoever, even though he or she is awake and fully conscious during the procedure. What naturally causes slight pain is the puncture in the back, which is also performed after local anesthesia. If pain in the anaesthetized area occurs during the operation, the anaesthetist can always inject the necessary dose of anaesthetic.
Because of the direct access to the nerve fibers, the effect is very fast and the pain decreases again. Even after the operation, spinal anesthesia offers convincing freedom from pain, as there is the possibility of re-injection. However, even spinal anesthesia is not completely free of side effects, which sometimes cause pain.
These include back pain and the rare so-called post-spinal headaches. If there are any undesirable effects, it is usually possible to counteract them quickly. In addition, there are the classic risks associated with any invasive procedure, such as infection of the injection site or the formation of bruises.
Here too, pain occurs, but it is also self-limiting. Some people are sceptical about regional anesthesia because they cannot imagine how, for example, an appendectomy can be performed without pain when awake. In general, it must therefore be pointed out that spinal anaesthesia cannot cause pain in the desired body regions under the puncture. Studies have even shown that this anaesthetic procedure is also advantageous for postoperative pain. Patients have reported less pain after this type of anesthesia compared to general anesthesia and were able to recover more quickly.Spinal anesthesia is a safe and easy-to-control method that is routinely used in many procedures.
