Comparison of the Effect of Spinal Anesthesia and General Anesthesia on Blood Glucose Concentration in Patients Undergoing Transurethral Lithotripsy

Prevention of hyperglycemia caused by surgical stress is a challenging issue. The present study was conducted to compare the effect of spinal anesthesia versus general anesthesia on blood glucose concentration in patients undergoing transurethral lithotripsy.

This cross-sectional study was conducted on 58 patients undergoing transurethral lithotripsy in Imam Khomeini Hospital in Urmia. Group S included patients who chose spinal anesthesia and group G included patients who chose general anesthesia. For both groups, blood glucose and insulin concentrations were measured at different times: five minutes before induction (T1), five minutes after induction (T2), five minutes before the end of the procedure (T3) and 30 minutes after the end of the procedure (T4).

The mean blood glucose in T3 (83.18±37.108) and T4 (82.16±125) in general anesthesia group was significantly higher than T3 (85.16±89.79) and T4 (72.5±10.81) in spinal anesthesia group (p<0.001). Furthermore, in the general anesthesia group, the increase in blood glucose in the time intervals T1-T2, T2-T3, T3-T4 and T1-T4 was significant (p-value: 0.03, 0.003, 0.001, <0.001, respectively). Moreover, in our study, the decrease in insulin secretion between T1 and T4 was significant only in the general anesthesia group (p=0.006).

The results of this study showed that the spinal anesthesia method is a more preferable method to prevent the increase in blood glucose in transurethral lithotripsy.