NCT01680913

Does Ultrasound Guidance Improve Time to Perform a Spinal or Number of Attempts in Obese Patients?

Does Ultrasound Guidance Improve Time to Perform a Spinal or Number of Attempts in Obese Patients? A Randomized Controlled Study.

• Status: Completed
• Phase: N/A
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 67 (actual)
• Sponsor: University of Saskatchewan · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: 18 Years – 85 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Not accepted

Summary

Spinal anesthesia depends on being able to locate physical landmarks on a patient's body. In obese patients, the commonly used landmarks may be difficult or even impossible to feel. In addition, the spine can be hidden beneath a layer of fatty tissue. Ultrasound is useful for finding the correct injection site in pregnant patients, but the usefulness of ultrasound has not been adequately evaluated in non-pregnant patients. The potential benefits for obese patients from the use of ultrasound include shortening the duration of the procedure, increasing patient comfort, decreasing the total number of attempts, and aiding in the choice of appropriate needle length for the patient. The investigators hypothesize that there is no difference in time to perform a spinal anesthetic when landmarking with ultrasound as compared to tactile landmarking in patients with BMI \> 35.

Conditions

• Spinal Anesthesia Administration

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
PROCEDURE	Ultrasound guidance	The intervention group's interspaces will be determined using the curved linear probe on a Zonare ultrasound using two views.
PROCEDURE	Palpation of Tuffier's line	Current clinical practice. Standard of care would have the attending anesthetist palpate the Tuffier's line to pinpoint the appropriate location for the spinal.
PROCEDURE	Spinal anesthetic	Subcutaneous local infiltration with a 25g needle we be performed prior to the spinal. Neuraxial technique will be attempted midline with a 25 gauge whitacre needle in the sitting position. Spinals will be attempted on either L2-L3, L3-L4, L4-L5 interspaces. The amount and type of local anesthetic/intrathecal narcotic will be left to the discretion of the Anesthetist.

Timeline

• Start date: 2013-01-01
• Primary completion: 2013-12-01
• Completion: 2013-12-01
• First posted: 2012-09-07
• Last updated: 2016-11-15

Locations

2 sites across 1 country: Canada