Abstract:
Background: Epidural anaesthesia and analgesia is
considered the 'gold standard' analgesic technique for major
surgery. However, its practice is limited in most hospitals in
Nigeria. The objective of this review was to determine the
rate of administration of epidural anaesthesia and to review
the challenges affecting its routine use in a District Hospital.
Methods: This was a retrospective study of all patients who
received anaesthesia in the hospital between 2010 and 2011.
Data extracted from the hospital record included the age and
sex of the patients, type of surgery, types of anaesthesia used,
outcomes of anaesthesia and the grade of anaesthetists
involved.
Results: A total of 2,828 anaesthetic procedures were carried
out during the study period with 1,288 and 1,540
administered in 2010 and 2011 respectively. Three (0.2%) of
the anaesthetic procedures were epidural in 2010 and 18
Abstract
(1.2%) in 2011, giving a 500% increase in rate of its
administration. Epidural anaesthesia constituted 0.74%
(21/2,828) of all anaesthetic procedures. Of these, 16 (76%)
were performed on females and 5 (24%) were males. Five
Nurse Anaesthetists and one Consultant Anaesthetist
provided anaesthesia services.There was no record of
morbidity or mortality related to epidural anaesthesia.
Conclusion: Epidural anaesthesia is safe but its utilization is
very low at this clinical setting. More physician anaesthetists
need to be trained in order to increase the practice of
epidural anaesthesia.
