For Atraumatic Spinal Anesthesia

In the mid-1970s, regional anesthesia was plagued by complications like post dural puncture headaches (PDPH), neck stiffness, nausea, and tinnitus.¹ The SPROTTE^® needle, a joint development by Prof. Dr. Sprotte and Horst and Heinrich Pajunk, was intended to change this. Their goal was to minimize the risk of nerve, dura, and blood vessel trauma.²

Thanks to the collaboration between Prof. Sprotte’s extensive clinical experience and the medical technology expertise of the Pajunk brothers, they succeeded in creating a puncture needle with a unique tip geometry in 1979. This innovation significantly enhanced the safety and reliability of regional anesthesia for all patients,² making a breakthrough in the field.

Since then, numerous studies have described a reduction in the incidence of PDPH when using the SPROTTE^® needle instead of the conventional traumatic needle types.^{3, 4, 5}

Studies:

¹Santos, Nelson S.et al. (2023). Early versus late sphenopalatine ganglion block with ropivacaine in postdural puncture headache: an observational study. Brazilian Journal of Anesthesiology, 73(1): 42–45.
²Sprotte G. (1997). The Sprotte Needle. ESRA-Meeting: Speech, 34–38.
^3,11Atashkhoei S. et al. (2022). Sprotte versus Quincke Spinal Needles on the Frequency of Spinal Anesthesia Success in Patients undergoing Cesarean Section Delivery. Evidence Based Care Journal, 12(2): 41–50.
^4,13Arevalo-Rodriguez I. et al. (2017). Needle gauge and tip designs for preventing post-dural puncture headache (PDPH). Cochrane Database of Systemic Reviews, 4(4): CD010807.
^5,14Nath S. et al. (2017). Atraumatic versus conventional lumbar puncture needles: a systematic review and meta-analysis. The Lancet, 391(10126): 1197–1204.
⁶Sprotte G. et al. (1987). Eine „atraumatische“ Universalkanüle für einzeitige Regionalanästhesien. Reg Anaesth, 10(3): 104–108.
⁷Strupp N., Katsarava Z. (2009). Postpunktioneles und spontanes Liquorunterdrucksyndrom. Nervenarzt, 80: 1509–1519.
⁸Cognat E. et al. (2021). Preventing Post-Lumbar Puncture Headache. Annals of Emergency Medicine, 78(3): 443–450.
^9,10Chin A., Van Zundert A. (2023). Spinal Anesthesia – NYSORA. NYSORA LMS.
¹²Segal S., Kodali B. S. (2023). Anesthesia for Cesarean Delivery. Springer Nature Switzerland AG, 197–248.
¹⁵ASA (2016). Practice Guidelines for Obstetric Anesthesia- An Updated Report by the American Society of Anesthesiologists Task Force on Obstetric Anesthesia and the Society for Obstetric Anesthesia and Perinatology. The American Society of Anesthesiologist, 124(2): 270–300.
^16,17Saenghirunvattana R. et al. (2008). A Comparison Study between Newly-Designed Pencil-Point and Cutting Needles in Spinal Anesthesia. Journal of Medical Association Thailand, 91(91): 156–161.