Central regional anaesthesia in patients with aortic stenosis - a systematic review

Introduction: Aortic stenosis is a valvular lesion that poses several haemodynamic challenges for the anaesthesiologist. The use of central regional anaesthesia is traditionally regarded as contraindicated in patients with severe aortic stenosis due to its sympatholytic effect, potentially causing loss of vascular tone and ultimately diminished cardiac output. The aim of this paper was to review current literature to find evidence for or against the use of neuroaxial blockade in patients with aortic stenosis. Methods: We searched PubMed for relevant articles, using the following MeSH terms: "aortic valve stenosis", "epidural anesthesia", "spinal anesthesia" and "epidural analgesia". Only English language literature was included. Papers concerning aortic stenosis and obstetrical anaesthesia were excluded. Results: There are no randomised clinical trials on the subject, and existing literature is extremely sparse. Four retrospective studies and eight case reports counting a total of ten patients were found. All report successful use of neuroaxial blockade in patients with aortic stenosis, without severe haemodynamic alterations. In addition, data indicate that postepidural analgesia improves outcome compared with conventional analgesia. Conclusions: To the best of our knowledge, there is no clinical evidence supporting the notion that central regional anaesthesia has any adverse effects on patients with aortic stenosis. Carefully managed neuroaxial blockade could become a useful alternative to general anaesthesia in this patient group. However, evidence is sparse and of questionable quality. Large prospective randomised clinical trials are required to establish best practise.