Evaluation of spinal vs general anaesthesia for retrograde intrarenal procedures

Patients diagnosed with kidney stones and having retrograde intrarenal surgery (RIRS) were the subjects of this research, which sought to evaluate spinal anaesthesia (SA) with general anaesthesia (GA) in terms of cost, success rate, effectiveness, and dependability.
We conducted a retrospective analysis of 82 patients who had RIRS at our clinic after a kidney stone diagnosis between 2020 and 2023. Time until stone fragmentation, duration of hospital stay, number of treatments needed, percentage of stones removed, frequency of complications, cost of anaesthesia, and length of operation were some of the metrics used to compare the groups.
Patients in the SA group had significantly older average ages and higher mean American Society of Anesthesiologists stages (P = 0.009, P = 0.024) compared to those in the GA group. When comparing the groups according to surgical time, stone fragmentation time, intraoperative double-J stent necessity, duration of hospital stay, and stone-free rate, there was no statistically significant difference (P > 0.05). Significantly, the SA group had a reduced anaesthesia cost (P < 0.001). In terms of the occurrence of complications, there was no statistically significant difference between the groups (P > 0.05).
One practical and efficient method for removing kidney stones is RIRS in conjunction with SA. Similar to RIRS given with GA, this method has a high success rate and a low complication rate. Since SA may be safely and effectively done with lower morbidity rates and much less cost than GA, we favour it for patients with comorbidities