Anesthetic Techniques for Urological Surgeries in Benue State University Teaching Hospital (BSUTH), Makurdi, Nigeria

Background: Urological surgery entails operating on the urinary system. Like every other surgery, they require anesthesia for the elimination of surgical pain. The organ to be operated as well as surgical approach determines the choice of anaesthesia used. This may be in the form of regional (including neuroaxial anesthesia) or general or even local anesthesia. This study was conducted to ascertain the anesthetic techniques employed for urological surgeries in the Benue State University Hospital (BSUTH), Makurdi, Nigeria. Methodology: This was a three-year retrospective study carried out in BSUTH, Makurdi, Nigeria. A total of 125 case files of eligible patients were retrieved from the records department following approval of an application. Relevant information was extracted from the patients’ folders and transferred into a prepared proforma. The data collected were analyzed using SPSS version 25 using simple statistics. Results: The age group with the highest number is that between 61 and 70 years, recording 40 (32.0%). The mean age was 54.0±20.4 Males were a clear majority with 119 cases accounting for 95.2% while only 6 cases (4.8%) involved females. The male to female ratio was 19.8:1. Most of the patients belonged to ASA II which recorded 70 (56.0%). Of the total of 125 diagnoses made, cancer of the prostate (CaP) was the highest with 63 (50.4%). The most common surgical procedure was prostate biopsy which was undertaken 58 times accounting for 46.4% of the procedures. Caudal block was employed most with 59 (47.2%). This was followed by Local infiltration with 30 (24.0%). Eighty-eight patients had surgery on day case basis while 37 patients underwent surgery as in-patients representing 70.4% and 29.6% of the study group respectively. Conclusion: Urological procedures are mostly infra-umbilical and are thus quite amenable to either regional or local anesthesia. This study has shown that caudal epidural block is the anesthetic technique of choice in urological surgery in this centre. Local anesthesia and sub-arachnoid block are next in that order. GA is not often employed. LA and regional techniques involve fewer disturbances to the respiratory system, and these were the anaesthetic methods mostly employed as established in this study.