What anesthesia is used for epidural?

Epidural medications fall into a class of drugs called local anesthetics, such as bupivacaine, chloroprocaine, or lidocaine. They are often delivered in combination with opioids or narcotics such as fentanyl and sufentanil in order to decrease the required dose of local anesthetic.

What is the difference between epidural and general anesthesia?

Epidural anesthesia allows the titration of short duration local anesthetics to provide potentially rapid discharge. Parnass et al. (1) demonstrated faster discharge with lidocaine epidural anesthesia than general anesthesia with isoflurane (159 vs 208 minutes).

What is an adverse effect of epidural anesthesia?

Potential side effects of an epidural may include headache, soreness, urination problems, and a decrease in blood pressure. While long-term complications are extremely rare, they may result in permanent nerve damage and persistent numbness and tingling.

What are contraindications for epidural or spinal anesthesia?

Contraindications to the use of a neuraxial (i.e., epidural or subarachnoid) technique include patient refusal, active maternal hemorrhage, septicemia, infection at or near the site of needle insertion and clinical signs of coagulopathy (Table 2).

Is general anesthesia safer than epidural?

Spinal Anesthesia Is Not Safer Than General Anesthesia for Hip Fracture Surgery. Complications at 60 days were similar, regardless of anesthesia strategy. Spinal anesthesia generally is assumed to be safer than general anesthesia for patients at high risk for perioperative morbidity and mortality.

Why is pain worse after epidural steroid injection?

The nervous system can be very sensitive to outside shocks like needle injections, and an epidural can have many adverse effects if incorrectly applied by the injector. The proximity of so many nerves also means that the injection is more likely to be painful compared to other procedures.

Is epidural anesthesia painful?

The doctor injects medicine just outside of the sac of fluid around your spinal cord. This is called the epidural space. The medicine numbs, or blocks, feeling in a certain part of your body so that you either feel less pain or no pain at all depending on the procedure.

How long does it take for spinal anesthesia to wear off?

The effect usually takes between 2 and 4 hours to wear off, depending on the dose your procedure required. When can I go home? Before you go home the spinal anaesthetic must have completely worn off. This means you should be able to walk and move about as you do normally.

What is the safest type of anesthesia?

The safest type of anesthesia is local anesthesia, an injection of medication that numbs a small area of the body where the procedure is being performed. Rarely, a patient will experience pain or itching where the medication was injected.