A Comparison Between Conventional and Waveform-Confirmed Loss-of-Resistance for Thoracic Epidural Blocks

Montreal General Hospital

Status and phase

Completed

Phase 3

Phase 2

Conditions

Anesthesia

Treatments

Procedure: Waveform-confirmed loss-of-resistance

Study type

Interventional

Funder types

Other

Identifiers

NCT02479763

15-077 MUHC

Details and patient eligibility

About

In the investigators' institution, the failure rate for thoracic epidural blocks is 23.1%. This stems from the prevalence of trainee operators coupled with the non-specific nature of loss-of-resistance. In the current randomized trial, we will set out to compare conventional and epidural waveform analysis-confirmed loss-of-resistance. The investigators' research hypothesis is that loss-of-resistance combined with epidural waveform analysis will decrease the failure rate of thoracic epidural blocks.

Enrollment

106 patients

Sex

All

Ages

18 to 80 years old

Volunteers

No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

the patients undergoing thoracic epidural catheter insertion for thoracic and abdominal surgery or rib fractures with American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) classification 1-3 and body mass index between 18 and 35

Exclusion criteria

adults who are unable to give their own consent
coagulopathy (assessed by history and physical examination and, if deemed clinically necessary, by blood work up ie platelets ≤ 100, or International Normalized Ratio ≥ 1.4)
renal failure (assessed by history and physical examination and, if deemed clinically necessary, by blood work up ie creatinine ≥ 100)
hepatic failure (assessed by history and physical examination and, if deemed clinically necessary, by blood work up ie transaminases ≥ 100)
allergy to local anesthetic (LA)
pregnancy
prior surgery in the thoracic spine