Postdural puncture headache comparative study between 25 guage pencil point needle and 25 gauge quincky needle

Objective: to discover if spinal anaesthesia with 25 guage pencil point needle produces postdural puncture headache in fewer patients than 25 guage quincke needle. place of study: department of anaesthesia,nawaz sharif social security hospital,lahore. material & methods: two hundred patients from different surgical departments of nawaz sharif social security hospital lahore having different surgical procedures on lower abdomen and lower limbs like hernias,amputations,debridements,turp,vesicolithotomy,dhs,total hip replacements,tibial nailing or plating,external fixators,caesarian sections and hystrectomies were included in this study. the patients of either sex between the age of 18-80 years (asai-ii) were selected after obtaining proper consent and procedure explained to them. results: two groups consisting 100 patients each were randomly chosen. there was no statistically significant difference between these groups with respect to age,height and weight having p value as (p 0.012 and 0.002) respectively. the percentage of patients expressed no pain at all was 96% in group-q and 98% in group-p. one male patient aged 55 years group-q suffered moderate postural headache on first day. postoperatively moderate postural headache required bed rest limiting daily activities and required only analgesic to subside pain. conclusion: spinal anaesthesia is picking up popularity once again in the modern anaesthetic time. since the introduction of spinal anaesthesia headache had remained a well recognized complication and was considered to be a small price to pay for the excellent anaesthesia produced by the spinal block.