A comparison of spinal isobaric levobupivacaine and racemic bupivacaine for lower abdominal and lower extremity surgery.

Background: Levobupivacaine is a new long-acting local anesthetic, which is the isolated S-enantiomer of racemic bupivacaine with less cardiovascular and central nervous system toxicity than bupivacaine. Reports using levobupivacaine for epidural or brachial plexus anesthesia suggested equivalent clinical efficacy to bupivacaine. However, inadequate information for spinal anesthesia was found

Objective: To study the onset of motor block and other anesthetic efficacy of intrathecally administered racemic bupivacaine compared with levobupivacaine.