Stroke, regional anesthesia in the sitting position, and hypotension: a review of 4169 ambulatory surgery patients.

Background And Objective: Intraoperative hypotension is used to reduce surgical bleeding. Case reports of stroke after general anesthesia in the sitting position led us to collect data (patient demographics, medical risk factors for stroke, intraoperative hemodynamics) about the incidence of stroke after surgery in the sitting position.

Methods: This study reviewed 4169 (3000 retrospective, 1169 prospective) ambulatory shoulder surgeries in the sitting position.