Perioperative Morbidity in Patients Randomized to Epidural or General Anesthesia for Lower Extremity Vascular Surgery

Carefully conducted epidural and general anesthesia appear to be associated with comparable rates of cardiac and most other morbidity in patients undergoing lower extremity vascular surgery. However, compared with general anesthesia, epidural anesthesia is associated with a lower incidence of reoperation for inadequate tissue perfusion and, therefore, may be advantageous for this surgical population.