Clinical Observation of 1,067 Cases of Epidural Anesthesia

Lee, Hyeon Sug; Chang, Won Young; Yoon, So Young; Kim, Kyung Bae

Abstract

From January l, l990 to June 30, l992, tota1 1,067 epidural anesthesia were evaluated retrospectively for physical status, level of anesthesia, agents of 1ocal anesthetics, complication and poatoperative pain control. The reaults were as follows: 1) Annual numbers of epidural aneathesia were 272 cases in 1990. 392 cases in 1991 and 403 cases in 1992 respectively. The number of epidural anesthesia was increaeing with years. 2) The most common site of epidural puncture level wae L(3-4) intervertebral space and mean depth from skin to epidural space was 4.88 cm. 3) The local anesthetics that used during epidural anesthesia were lidocaine(1%, 1.5%, 2%) and bupivacaine(0.25%, 0.375%. 0.5%). 4) The most common sensory level which were blocked by epidural anesthesia waa T(10) and most common complication was hypotension. 5) Postoperative pain control with epidural anestheaia was managed with continuous drug infusor after 1991, and it was managed with single bolus injection before 1991. In conclusion, epidural anesthesia is a safe regional anesthesia that will reduce the incidence of hypotension provided that careful control of the aensory level to be anesthetiaed is taken under consideration along with the age, physical status, site of operation, volume of local anesthetics and it is effective for the postoperative pain control with continuous infusion of morphine sulfate and local anesthetic through catheter.