Conditions: Osteoarthritis
Keywords: anaesthetic techniques subarachnoid analgesia
Allocation: RANDOMIZED | Intervention model: PARALLEL
Enrollment: 120
Healthy volunteers: no

Brief summary:
The purpose of this study is to determine whether general anaesthesia or regional anaesthesia is best for patients undergoing Total Hip Arthroplasty.

Detailed description:
A randomized controlled trial (RCT) with a follow up time of 48 hrs. Patients scheduled for primary Total Hip Arthroplasty. A total of 120 patients randomly assigned to one of the two alternatives (general anaesthesia (GA) or regional anaesthesia (RA)).

General anaesthesia compared to intrathecal anaesthesia will give shorter length of hospital stay (LOS) for patients undergoing total hip arthroplasty (THA).

Primary endpoint:

LOS.

Secondary endpoints:

Postoperative pain? Postoperative orthostatic function (dizziness) Time until the patient meets the discharge criteria from PACU How many patients will need at least one urinary bladder catheterisation

Arms:
arm 1: RA-arm: the patients in this arm will receive intrathecal anaesthesia consisting of bupivacaine 15 mg arm 2: GA-arm: patients in this arm will receive general anaesthesia consisting of Target Controlled Infusion (TCI) of remifentanil and propofol

Interventions: intervention 1: GA-arm, remifentanil intervention 2: RA-arm
Intervention descriptions: intervention 1: Remifentanil and propofol will be delivered intravenously via TCI pumps according to the "Marsh" and "Minto" algorithm intervention 2: Intrathecal (i.e. spinal) anesthesia with isobaric bupivacaine 15 mg administered intrathecally at L4-L5.

Protocol document: