Peri-anal Local Anaesthetic Infiltration Versus Caudal Anaesthesia in Hirschsprung's Disease.

Caudal anesthesia is one of the most commonly used regional anesthetic and analgesic technique in pediatric patient as it is an easy safe and reliable method that can be performed for both intraoperative and postoperative analgesia in patient undergoing lower abdominal and lower limb surgery. It can be used for upper abdominal surgery by increasing the volume of local anesthetic injected or through advancing a catheter.

Caudal anesthesia is a common practice given along with general anesthesia to decrease intraoperative inhalational anesthesia requirements, postoperative pain and emergence agitation.

So many patients are complaining from ano-rectal pathologies, these diseases are common in both sexes and all age groups. The spectrum of anorectal disorders ranges from benign and irritating (pruritus- ani) to potentially life-threatening (anorectal cancer) and the surgical intervention is performed mostly under general or regional anesthesia.

While general and regional anesthetics provide reliable anesthesia, they are often associated with nausea,vomiting, urinary retention and motor blockade of lower limbs. Moreover, repeated spinal or epidural punctures performed by inexperienced anesthesiologists often cause delays in the tight schedule of operations.

Several reports have described various forms of local anesthetic infiltration for ano- rectal surgery , hemorrhoidectomy,anal fistula or fissure surgeries or lateral sphincterotomy. Local peri-anal infiltration is a simple procedure that can be easily learned and performed by surgeon and this method allows the operation to begin almost immediately.

There are different types of local anesthesia like infiltration, nerve block, ring block field block. Considering anorectal surgeries, nerve bock mainly pudendal nerve along with infiltration anesthesia is used worldwide. Perianal block by local anesthetic infiltration is safe simple and effective for various anal operations with very high degree of acceptance and satisfaction among patients .it had been found to be associated with low pain score and postoperative complications and faster return to daily social activity.

Although there are studies on the use of caudal block and local infiltration of anesthetic agent for the surgical resolution of anorectal pathologies, there is no established protocol for comparing efficacy, postoperative pain, and satisfaction among pediatrics patient undergoing trans-anal pull through in congenital megacolon (Hirschsprung's disease).