The broken epidural catheter: to remove or not to remove?

Cateter epidural seccionado

“…Existe poca evidencia de complicaciones relacionadas con la retención de un fragmento de catéter peridural, aunque se han publicado síntomas neurológicos que requirieron cirugía para la extracción del catéter y formación a largo plazo de granulomas (14) . Un caso particular reportado en la literatura presenta una paciente de 34 años que consulta por un dolor radicular en la distribución de L3, refractario al tratamiento, de 7 meses de evolución, de inicio posterior a una operación cesárea con anestesia general, después de un fallo en la anestesia peridural.…”

Broken Epidural Catheter After Vaginal Delivery

“…Catheter insertion is associated with multiple complications such as abscess, hematoma, migration, kinking, and radiculopathy. Removing the catheter is mostly a smooth procedure but can rarely be complicated by the breakage of the catheter, with an incidence rate of 0.002% [ 1 ]. The type of catheter, the level of experience, the position of the patient during removal, the way of removing the catheter, and the patient's BMI are considered the most causative factors [ 2 ].…”

Broken epidural catheter: What next to do?

“…Although the breakage of an epidural catheter (both during insertion and removal) is rare, but it's a worrisome complication. 1 On searching literature the first ever reported case of broken retained epidural catheter was by Bonica et al, 2 since then isolated reports have been done by various authors to create awareness among surgeon and patient. Our case is yet another attempt to increase the awareness regarding this complication.…”