Subcutaneous emphysema and pneumomediastinum are well-known complications of barotrauma. There are no fascial barriers between the posterior mediastinum and the retropharyngeal and epidural spaces; thus, air can diffuse freely to the epidural space and produce an epidural pneumatosis. We report a case of epidural pneumatosis caused by a pneumomediastinum following nasotracheal intubation for an...

We report a case of adhesions in the epidural space caused by more than 200 times epidural blocks that were observed with epiduroscopy. A 41-year-old man had repeatedly undergone lumbar epidural blocks to treat pain in his leg, resulting in decreased efficacy of the epidural block. We described endoscopic findings that these adhesions were mostly consisted of adhesions formed from the soft conn...

BACKGROUND Accidental cannulation of an epidural vein is a common complication associated with epidural anesthesia or analgesia. On the basis of a pilot study and previous reports, we tested the hypothesis that predistention of the epidural space with saline before epidural catheterization would ease catheter insertion and decrease the incidence of this complication. METHODS Two-hundred-three...

BACKGROUND The epidural lysis of adhesions (ELOA) procedure supposedly has a biomechanical component in addition to the targeted injection of medications into the epidural space. It is assumed that the catheters used for the ELOA procedure can release epidural scars and adhesions. OBJECTIVES To evaluate the possible biomechanical effects of the typically used catheters and to put these effect...

Introduction Epidural abscess is a suppurative fluid collection in the epidural space that, if not treated promptly, may result in severe consequences. It is caused most commonly by Staphylococcus aureus followed by Gram negative bacilli, streptococcus species, and coagulase negative staphylococci. 1,2 A rare case of recurrent epidural abscess caused by an unusual pathogen, Propionibacterium ac...

Disc fragments are well known to migrate to superior, inferior, or lateral sites in the anterior epidural space, posterior epidural migrated lumbar disc fragments is an extremely rare disorder. Posterior epidural migrated lumbar disc fragments are often confused with other posterior epidural space-occupying lesions (cysts, abscesses, tumors, and hematomas). We reported the case of a 52- year-ol...

BACKGROUND Ropivacaine is used by the epidural route for postoperative pain management with various neuraxial techniques. Given the widespread use of these techniques and the relative paucity of data on spinal disposition of local anesthetics, we evaluated through an experimental animal model, the spinal disposition of ropivacaine, allowing further studies of factors influencing their intrathec...

The interest currently being shown in the combined spinal epidural technique prompts us to publish some data we have on the width of the epidural space in obstetric patients. We have been using a recently described modification of this combined technique1 to estimate the width of the posterior epidural space in the midline, in 33 patients for Caesarean section. All patients were in the left lat...

INTRODUCTION Cervical radiculopathy is a common condition affecting many people each year. The efficacy of cervical epidural steroid injection for patients that have not responded to conservative treatment has been demonstrated. Even with confirmatory radiocontrast dispersion indicating correct presence in the epidural space, there still may be rostral spread of steroid and local anesthetic res...

The ideal technique for identifying the epidural space remains unclear. Five-hundred-forty-seven women in labor who requested epidural analgesia were randomly allocated to three groups according to the technique by which the epidural space was identified: 1) loss-ofresistance with air (air; n 180), 2) loss-of-resistance with lidocaine (lidocaine; n 185), and 3) loss-ofresistance with both air a...