BACKGROUND: Clinical studies suggest that postoperative morbidity and possibly mortality may be reduced when regional anesthesia is used. Use of regional anesthesia in renal transplantation is still controversial but promising. We assessed the effect of regional anesthesia for 20 cases of renal transplantation.

METHODS: 13 patients were operated on under subarachnoid block with continuous epidural anesthesia. Bupivacaine was used for subarachnoid block and lidocaine was used for continuous epidural anesthesia. 7 patients were operated on under only continuous epidural anesthesia. Lidocaine was used for only continuous epidural anesthesia.

RESULTS: In 20 cases of renal transplantation regional anesthesia was sufficient for performance of the operation. Stable intraoperative hemodynamics and absence of serious postoperative pulmonary complications were observed in patients operated on under regional anesthesia. Their postoperative analgesia was successfully maintained epidurally.

CONCLUSIONS: Our cases show that regional anesthesia has the advantage of stable hemodynamics, fewer postoperative complications and postoperative analgesia.