Evaluating the potential impact of spinal anesthesia use in lumbar surgery on global healthcare cost and climate change.

Introduction: Despite recent evidence demonstrating its safety and efficacy, spinal anesthesia remains a seldom-utilized anesthetic modality in lumbar surgical procedures. In addition, numerous clinical advantages, such as reduced cost, blood loss, operative time, and inpatient length of stay have been consistently demonstrated with spinal anesthesia over general anesthesia. Research question: In this report we aim to examine the differences between spinal anesthesia and general anesthesia with regard to accessibility and climate impact and determine whether wider adoption of spinal anesthesia would have a meaningful impact on the global population. Results: In the U.S., use of spinal anesthesia for lumbar fusions would have resulted in savings of 343 million dollars in 2015. A similar reduction in cost was seen with each country studied. Additionally, spinal anesthesia was associated with 12,352 ​kg carbon dioxide equivalents (CO Discussion and conclusion: Spinal anesthesia is safe and effective for both simple and complex spine surgeries, it reduces carbon emissions, permits lower operative times, and decreases cost.