We have investigated prospectively the incidence of bacterial contamination of 114 spinal and 20 epidural needles collected immediately after lumbar puncture of the subarachnoid or epidural space. Bacteriological examination revealed bacterial contamination of 24 (17.9%) of the needles, mainly coagulase-negative staphylococci (21; 15.7%) followed by yeasts (2; 1.5%), enterococcus (1; 0.8%), pne...

BACKGROUND Postdural puncture headache (PDPH) is one of the common complications of spinal anesthesia; it is observed in 1-40% of cases involving spinal anesthesia. It can cause considerable morbidity and 40% of cases may require invasive treatments such as epidural blood patch. With the exception of invasive treatments such as an epidural blood patch, current standard treatment modalities have...

C fluid (CSF) examination is performed in the emergency department (ED) to obtain information relevant to the diagnosis and treatment of specific disease entities. Many urgent and life-threatening conditions require immediate and accurate knowledge of the nature of the CSF. However, on rare occasions, certain harmful consequences may result from a spinal puncture. Perform a careful neurologic e...

T HE value of sternal puncture as a diagnostic aid has been limited by a lack of definitely established normal standards. In 1944 Osgood and Seaman’ reviewed the available data from their own studies and those in the literature and compiled a set of tentative standards. They emphasized the complete lack of uniformity of methods and the inadequacy of the records. The present paper contains the r...

BACKGROUND Combined spinal-epidural analgesia provides rapid-onset analgesia with minimal motor block, but it is a more invasive technique than epidural analgesia and the risk of complications may be increased. This study compared the safety and effect on delivery of combined spinal-epidural and epidural analgesia in labor. METHODS A retrospective observational study was performed. Data were ...

The results presented in this communication are based on the examination of 113 cases of syphilis in all stages of the disease, from the secondary eruption to general paresis. During the past ten months every case of syphilis admitted to the hospital has had lumbar puncture performed as part of the routine examination; previous to that time only cases which suggested infection of the nervous sy...

BACKGROUND Continuous spinal anesthesia is a very reliable and versatile technique for providing effective anesthesia and analgesia. However, the incidence of possible complications, including postdural puncture headache or neurological impairment, remains controversial. Therefore, the aim of the present retrospective study was to analyze a large number of patients for the incidence of adverse ...