Analysis of Factors Affecting Thoracic Epidural Anesthesia Performance Time

Abstract

Thoracic epidural anesthesia (TEA) is an efficient procedure for managing intraoperative and postoperative pain caused by liver resection, gastrectomy, or lung surgery. Precise prediction of difficulty of TEA has the advantage of reducing the risk of complications. The purpose of this study was to identify factor correlated with TEA performance time under fluoroscopic guidance. From September 2017 to May 2018, 39 patients who were scheduled to receive TEA under fluoroscopic guidance for postoperative pain control were enrolled for this study. All thoracic epidural catheterization was performed by one physician who had more than 5 years of experience in spine intervention. TEA was performed one day before the elective surgery in the outpatient pain clinic. Body mass index (BMI) was found to be a factor associated with TEA performance time. Correlation coefficients of performance time with age, height, weight and BMI were 0.099, –0.129, 0.346, and 0.575, respectively. BMI needs to be considered as one factor that affects the difficulty of TEA.