No abstract

The authors found that the microendoscopic technique could be applied to decompression surgery for thoracic OLF. The procedure could provide a sufficient decompression with minimum damage to the paraspinal muscles. However, the microendoscopic procedure should be indicated only for select thoracic OLF, such as OLF without fusion at the middle of the spinal canal and OLF without dural ossification, because of its technical difficulties.

4.

The breakage of an epidural catheter is an extremely rare complication. We describe a unique case where a retained epidural catheter fragment after epidural anesthesia was treated by surgery. The epidural catheter broke during its removal, requiring surgery to remove the retained catheter. Intraoperatively, the removal of the catheter was attempted by simple traction, but was impossible because of the adhesion. The adhesion of the dura mater surface was carefully exfoliated and the successful removal of the catheter was accomplished. Conventionally, it was said that this follow-up was enough for the retained catheter. However, if a catheter is retained within the spinal canal, surgical removal should thus be considered before the adhesion advances.