Objective- To compare the time of onset, duration of action and the extent of analgesia produced by a lidocaine/xylazine combination with that produced by lidocaine and xylazine alone after injection into the caudal extradural space of the Iranian river buffalo. Design- Observer-blind prospective descriptive trial, Latin square design.   Animals-  Eleven adult (aged over 2 years) female non-...

Continuous extradural analgesia by means of repeated doses of local analgesic drugs through a catheter placed in the extradural space is now widely used in this country, both for the production of surgical analgesia and for the relief of pain. Using the caudal route, labour can be conducted painlessly, and by simply increasing the dosage the analgesia can be extended to cover a Caesarean sectio...

To test the hypothesis that segmental thoracic extradural block causes sympathetic denervation caudally beyond dermatomes rendered analgesic, we have measured regional skin temperatures in six conscious dogs after upper thoracic, mid thoracic, and lumbar extradural injection of 0.5% bupivacaine 0.5, 1 and 2 ml cumulatively (total dose: 3.5 ml) given at 45-min intervals. Dogs were studied at con...

Sixty boys, aged 1-10 yr, undergoing orchidopexy were allocated randomly to receive one of three solutions for caudal extradural injection. Group A received 0.25% bupivacaine 1 ml kg-1 with adrenaline 5 micrograms ml-1 (1/200,000), group C received 0.25% bupivacaine 1 ml kg-1 with clonidine 2 micrograms kg-1 and group K received 0.25% bupivacaine 1 ml kg-1 with ketamine 0.5 mg kg-1. Postoperati...

Sir,—I read with interest the paper by Schulte-Steinberg and Rahlfs (1977), as I did their earlier paper on this subject in 1970. As I have more experience in this subject now than in 1970 (700-800 caudal blocks in children aged 10 yr and less), I should like to say that I cannot see the relevance of this work to clinical practice. If a general anaesthetic is to be administered throughout surge...

Background: Caudal anaesthesia is the most common regional technique for regional anaesthesia in pediatrics. However, many adjuvants are now used to prolong its analgesic effect. In this study we investigate the addition of dexmedetomidine to bupivacaine in caudal analgesia for major abdominopelvic surgeries in pediatrics. Methods: Sixty children ASA I or II, males and females, aged 6 months to...

Data on the segmental spread of analgesia from three independent studies of caudal extradural blocks in children with three different local anaesthetic agents were examined with multiple regression techniques to find the effects of age on dose requirements. All three studies confirmed the existence of a linear relationship between the spread of analgesia and age. As there were no significant di...

We report three previously healthy individuals, aged 19-40 yr, with co-existing infected lower limb cutaneous wounds, who developed, in all probability, spinal space infections complicating continuous extradural analgesia. As the number of patients with extradural catheters and large cutaneous wounds represents a small fraction of the total number of patients with extradural catheters, three ca...