Epidural analgesia: first do no harm

The hidden cost of neuraxial anaesthesia?

“…A large multi-centre Australian study of epidural analgesia following major surgery did not show the 20% reduction in mortality and morbidity it was powered to find, and patients in both the treatment and control (non-epidural) groups demonstrated low pain scores [6]. This may have influenced a reduction in epidural usage in Australia and New Zealand [7]. One cannot dispute the excellent dynamic analgesia that regional analgesia can provide postoperatively.…”