Postoperative intrathecal patient-controlled analgesia with bupivacaine, sufentanil or a mixture of both.

In a randomised double-blind study, 45 patients, scheduled for major orthopaedic surgery under continuous spinal anaesthesia, received for relief of postoperative pain patient-controlled analgesia with either sufentanil 2 micrograms.ml-1, bupivacaine 0.0625% or a mixture of both by the intrathecal route.

Combined continuous spinal-epidural anaesthesia with a single interspace, double-catheter technique.

A double catheter, single interspace combined spinal-epidural anaesthetic was performed in 12 ASA grade 3 patients. The technique failed in one patient in whom the intrathecal catheter could not be inserted satisfactorily. In another patient, the epidural catheter was accidentally placed intrathecally.

Does epidural injection of physiological saline facilitate the advancement of catheters?

Seventy patients (ASA I, ASA II), scheduled for a surgical intervention under epidural or combined spinal-epidural anaesthesia, were randomly allocated to one of two groups. The epidural space was identified by loss of resistance using air, followed by injection in Group A (35 patients) of 10 ml of physiological saline directed cephallad and in Group B (35 patients) by no injection. Thereafter an anaesthetist, different to the one who placed the Tuohy in the epidural space, advanced a catheter up to 10 cm into the epidural space.