Lumbar disk herniation is common. Because of the posterior longitudinal ligament, migration usually occurs into the ventral epidural space. Rarely, fragments migrate into the dorsal epidural space. A 57-year-old man presented with lower back pain and weakness on right hip flexion and right knee flexion. He had lower back pain 1 day previously and received a transforaminal epidural block at a lo...

Cervical epidural steroid injection is frequently used in the conservative management of neck pain and cervical radiculopathy. Epidural cervical transforaminal injections are usually well-tolerated with mild side effects such as transient decreased sensory and motor function, or headache due to dural puncture. Although there are a few case reports about adverse effects of cervical epidural inje...

We report a patient who developed paraplegia caused by a spinal epidural hematoma after removal of an epidural catheter, which resolved spontaneously. A 60-year-old woman underwent thoracoscopic partial resection of the left lung under general anesthesia combined with epidural anesthesia. She neither was coagulopathic nor had received anticoagulants. Paraplegia occurred 40 minutes after removal...

Acute epidural hematomas present a serious and urgent condition. Standard management is early diagnosis and immediate surgical evacuation. Otherwise, there is a high risk of quick deterioration and death. Only patients with small asymptomatic epidural hematomas can be managed conservatively with close observation. We present a case of traumatic right temporal epidural hematoma. This is one of t...

OBJECTIVE A substantial reduction in lung volumes and pulmonary function follows cardiac surgery. Pain may prevent effective breathing and coughing, and as thoracic epidural analgesia may reduce postoperative pain, we investigated the effect of epidural analgesia on pulmonary function. METHODS Fifty-four male patients, under 65 years and with an ejection fraction of more than 0.5, were random...

BACKGROUND Transforaminal epidural steroid injection is one of the effective treatments in managing radicular pain. There have been some prospective studies on the depth to the epidural space with the transforaminal approach. However, there have been no studies about the depth in Asians, especially Koreans. This study was carried out in order to evaluate the depth to the epidural space and the ...

BACKGROUND This study was conducted to investigate the feasibility of using ultrasound as an image tool to locate the sacral hiatus accurately for caudal epidural injections. METHODS Between August 2002 and July 2003, 70 patients (39 male and 31 female patients) with low back pain and sciatica were studied. Soft tissue ultrasonography was performed to locate the sacral hiatus. A 21-gauge caud...

Background Context. Products that can reduce development of epidural fibrosis may reduce risk for ongoing pain associated with development of scar tissue and make subsequent epidural reexploration easier. Purpose. To evaluate the use of dehydrated human amnion/chorion membrane (dHACM) on the formation of soft tissue scarring in the epidural space. Study Design. Case series. Patient Sample. Five...

PURPOSE Pain in terminal cancer patients may be refractory to systemic analgesics or associated with adverse drug reactions to analgesics. Epidural analgesia has been effectively used in such patients for pain control. However, this method does not provide pain relief to all patients. The efficacy and complications of continuous epidural analgesia were evaluated for expanding efficacy in termin...

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...