Key result
High thoracic epidural analgesia during cardiac surgery resulted in 0 neurological complications among 874 patients, suggesting major neurological complications are rare.
Why the study?
Does high thoracic epidural analgesia cause neurological complications in patients undergoing cardiac surgery?
Observational (n=874)
No
Does high thoracic epidural analgesia cause neurological complications in patients undergoing cardiac surgery?
High thoracic epidural analgesia during cardiac surgery appears safe, with major neurological complications being rare.
High thoracic epidural analgesia may be safe in cardiac surgery; leaves open need for randomized confirmation of neurological risk.
Despite clinical use for over 10 years, high thoracic epidural analgesia for cardiac surgery remains controversial, due to a perceived increased risk of epidural haematoma resulting from anticoagulation for cardiac pulmonary bypass. There are no sufficiently large randomised studies to address this question and few large case series reported. For this reason, we conducted an audit of neurological complications related to high thoracic epidural analgesia during cardiac surgery in our institution between 1998 and end 2005. During this period 874 patients received epidural analgesia. There were no neurological complications attributable to epidural use. Our findings suggest that major neurological complications related to high thoracic epidural use during cardiac surgery are rare.
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Royse et al. (2007) conducted an observational in Cardiac surgery (n=874). High thoracic epidural analgesia was evaluated on Neurological complications. High thoracic epidural analgesia during cardiac surgery resulted in 0 neurological complications among 874 patients, suggesting major neurological complications are rare.
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