BACKGROUND: Approximately ninety percent of anorectal surgical procedures are performed in ambulatory basis. The choice of a proper anesthetic technique is important to achieve shorter hospital stay and low costs. There's no evidence in the literature that an ideal type of anesthesia for these procedures exists. AIM: To compare the costs of patients operated with spinal anesthesia (0,5% bupivacaine) with combined anesthesia (propofol and local perineal block with 2% lidocaine and 0,5% bupivacaine) in anorectal surgical procedures. METHODS: Data from 99 patients submitted to anorectal operations were retrospectively analyzed. They were divided in two groups: 50 patients were operated with spinal anesthesia (group I) and 49 with combined anesthesia (group II). The type of operation, the time of hospital stay, the time of anesthetic and surgical procedure and the costs were analyzed. RESULTS: There were no significant differences between the studied groups regarding the type of operation, gender, age and complications. The time of anesthetic and surgical procedures was 53,1 minutes in group I and 44,08 minutes in group II (P=0,034). The average time of hospital stay was 19,68 hours in group I and 7,08 hours in group II (P<0,0001). The average cost of the procedures was R$ 296,49 in group I and R$ 280,27 in group II (P=0,73). CONCLUSIONS: Anorectal procedures with combined anesthesia (propofol and local perineal block) had similar costs than those with spinal anesthesia. There was a lower time of anesthetic and surgical procedures and shorter hospital stay in the combined anesthesia group.
Anesthesia; Colorectal surgery; Anal canal
