Evidence-based standardization of the perioperative management of patients undergoing complex spine surgery can improve outcomes such as enhanced patient satisfaction, reduced intensive care and hospital length of stay, and reduced costs. The Society for Neuroscience in Anesthesiology and Critical Care (SNACC) tasked an expert group to review existing evidence and generate recommendations for the perioperative management of patients undergoing complex spine surgery, defined as surgery on 2 or more thoracic and/or lumbar spine levels. Institutional clinical management protocols can be constructed based on the elements included in these clinical practice guidelines, and the evidence presented.

A 19-year-old African American man with a T12 spinal cord lesion underwent a T4-L5 thoracolumbar spinal fusion. Intraoperatively, his arterial blood pressure acutely increased from 110/60 to 260/130 mm Hg without a change in heart rate. The patient did not have pheochromocytoma, carcinoid syndrome, or thyroid storm. This presentation differs from autonomic dysreflexia because the spinal cord lesion was well below T6, hypertension was elicited with somatic stimulation above the lesion, and the response required aggressive pharmacologic management. This presentation is consistent with similar cases that support a central autonomic process.

A parturient with unknown thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura (TTP) received spinal anesthesia for cesarean delivery with subsequent discovery of a platelet count of 7000 × 109/L. Neurologic recovery was normal. Limited data exist to determine the risk of spinal epidural hematoma (SEH) in severely thrombocytopenic patients because they often receive alternate labor analgesia or general anesthesia during cesarean delivery. There is reporting bias in the literature toward cases in which severely thrombocytopenic patients sustain complications after regional anesthesia. It is important to report all cases of neuraxial anesthesia in severely thrombocytopenic patients, including those such as ours, wherein patients recover normally.