Introduction: Venous insufficiency caused by varicose veins, especially in the lower extremities, is widespread and can cause severe complications. Anaesthesia is essential for any surgical approaches in varicose vein surgery. This study evaluated the effect of single-dose epidural anaesthesia on postoperative pain scores and length of hospitalisation after varicose vein surgery, comparing it with general anaesthesia.
Methods: The study was conducted on a total of 100 patients, aged 18 years and older, with the American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) physical status classification I-III, undergoing unilateral lower-extremity stripping due to varicose veins within a six-month period at the Prof Dr Cemil Taşçioğlu City Hospital Anesthesiology and Reanimation Service. Fifty patients with single-dose epidural anaesthesia were consecutively included in the EA group. For comparison, 50 patients who were operated on under general anesthesia were included in the GA group.
Results: The groups showed statistically significant differences between the 30th-minute and first-, second-, fourth- and sixth-hour visual analogue scale (VAS) scores (p = 0.001; p < 0.01). Patients with epidural anaesthesia had lower 30th-minute VAS scores compared to those administered general anaesthesia. There were statistically significant differences identified between the groups for the additional analgesia requirements of patients (p = 0.001; p < 0.01). Subjects with epidural anaesthesia had lower additional analgesic requirements than those administered general anaesthesia.
Conclusion: Epidural anaesthesia provided adequate anaesthesia with more effective postoperative analgesia compared to patients operated on under general anaesthesia and receiving multimodal analgesia for postoperative analgesia.
Keywords: epidural anaesthesia; multimodal analgesia; stripping; varicose vein.