Incidence of headache,nausea and vomiting following spinal anesthesia

A report of 500 cases of lumbar anesthesia is submitted with special reference to the incidence of postanesthetic headache, nausea, and vomiting in patients who are ambulatory within a short period after surgery.

1.

1. Postanesthetic headache occurred in 30.6 per cent of the cases; this is a much higher incidence than one finds in most published reports and may be explained upon the basis of the following considerations: cases reported in the literature are not selected cases, but those usually requiring seven to ten days of postoperative bed rest; the cases analyzed in the present study were largely those on whom anorectal operations had been performed, these patients requiring only a short period of recumbency.