Epidural anesthesia in patients with morbid obesity

Epidural anesthesia with spontaneous respiration was used in 86 obese patients with the excessive body weight 130% more than the ideal weight. The minimum influence of epidural anesthesia upon oxygenation of the arterial blood in spontaneous respiration with the atmospheric air during abdominal interventions was noted. This kind of anesthesia decreased the risk of development of toxic complications characteristic of general anesthesia and gave less intraoperative load upon the cardio-vascular system of obese patients. The results obtained allow considering the epidural anesthesia to be the method of choice in very obese patients during operations on organs of the abdominal cavity.