Prevalence of back pain and headache after spinal anesthesia for cesarean section compared to general anesthesia

Abstract

Abstract Background Cesarean section is the most frequent surgery in obstetrics. Common types of anesthesia done in CS are regional and general, which aim to insure the well being of the fetus and the mother and alleviate the pain in surgery as much as possible. In our study, we aim to investigate the prevalence of headache and back pain after regional anesthesia compared to general anesthesia. Methods A cross sectional study involving 279 patients who were admitted to Alzahrawi hospital and had undergone CS Results The sample in our study consisted of 279 patients, whose average age was 30.07 years; the majority of these patients had undergone regional anesthesia (82%); the remaining patients had undergone general anesthesia (18%). We did not find a statistically significant relationship between patients' headache and back pain and the type of anesthesia (P > 0.05); however, there was a statistically significant relationship between the procedures used during the procedure and the type of anesthesia. Conclusion Our study has shown that there’s no link between the anesthetic procedure and occurrence of back pain and headaches, eventhough most of the participants have gotten regional anesthesia.