1.

GENERAL ANESTHESIA
 Pain.
 Nausea and vomiting - up to 30% of patients
 Damage to teeth.
 Sore throat and laryngeal damage.
 Anaphylaxis to anaesthetic agents - approximately 1 in 3,000.
 Cardiovascular collapse.
 Respiratory depression.
 Aspiration pneumonitis - non-obstetric emergency rate between 1 in 373 to 1 in 895[4].
 Hypothermia.
 Hypoxic brain damage.
 Nerve injury.
 Awareness during anaesthesia.
 Embolism - air, thrombus, venous or arterial.
 Backache.
 Headache.
 Idiosyncratic reactions related to specific agents - eg, malignant hyperpyrexia with
suxamethonium, succinylcholine-related apnoea.
 Iatrogenic - eg, pneumothorax related to central line insertion.
 Death.
2. LOCAL/REGIONAL ANESTHESIA
LOCAL
- Pain.
- Bleeding and haematoma formation.
- Nerve injury due to direct injury.
- Infection.
- Ischaemic necrosis.

REGIONAL

- Pain - patients may still experience pain despite spinal anaesthesia.

- Post-dural headache from cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) leak.
- Hypotension and bradycardia through blockade of the sympathetic nervous system.
- Limb damage from sensory and motor block.
- Epidural or intrathecal bleed.
- Respiratory failure if block is 'too high'[6].
- Direct nerve damage.
- Hypothermia.
- Damage to the spinal cord - may be transient or permanent.
- Spinal infection.
- Aseptic meningitis.
- Haematoma of the spinal cord - enhanced by use of LMWH pre-operatively.
- Anaphylaxis.
- Urinary retention.
- Spinal cord infarction.
 - Anaesthetic intoxication

3. SPINAL ANESTHESIA
- direct needle trauma
- infection (meningitis or abscess formation)
- vertebral canal hematoma
- spinal cord ischemia
- cauda equina syndrome (CES)
- arachnoiditis
- peripheral nerve injury
- total spinal anesthesia (TSA)
- cardiovascular collapse
- postural dependent spinal anesthesia
- death