Abstract

Aim: Skin puncture pain during spinal anesthesia is the reason of wincing from spinal anesthesia in many patients. In this study we aimed to compare the effect of two different spinal needles on skin puncture pain during spinal anesthesia for caesarian sections.
Material and Methods: Eighty pregnant women scheduled to undergo elective caesarean section under spinal anesthesia were studied. Spinal anesthesia was induced with hyperbaric bupivacaine 10-15 mg via a 26G Quincke (Group Q, n=40) or 26G atraumatic (Group A, n=40) spinal needle in the sitting position at the L3–4 or L4-5 vertebral level using median approach. Skin puncture pain during spinal anesthesia was assessed on a scale of 0 to 10, where 0 means refers no pain and 10 the worst possible pain (0 no, 1–3 mild, 4–6 moderate, 7–10 severe).
Results: Skin puncture pain VAS values, median (range) [IQR], were 2(1-5)[1-3] in Group Q and 2(1-7)[1-3] in Group A. There were no statistically differences between the groups (p=0.707).
Conclusion: We believe that Quincke and Atraumatic spinal needles don’t have any difference in terms of skin puncture pain during spinal anesthesia for cesarean section.

Key words: Skin Puncture Pain; Spinal Anesthesia; Spinal Needle; Caesarian Sections.