Localización del espacio epidural mediante una variante del signo de Gutiérrez, Hospitales Vicente Corral Moscoso y José Carrasco Arteaga Cuenca, 2012

Abstract

Background. In regional anesthesia epidural space identification is a procedure that requires refined skills. Some devices have attempted to facilitate the approach, but the main difficulty has been the widespread use. Recently it has been reported the usefulness of a stopcock which placed in the drum of the Tuohy needle becomes a variation of the pendant drop.

Objective. To determine the usefulness of a variant of the technique of hanging drop Gutierrez to identify the epidural space.

Material and methods. With simple random sampling 155 patients scheduled for lower body surgery under epidural anesthesia were included . A variant of the hanging drop was used Gutierrez through a stopcock attached to the drum of the Tuohy needle 18G to identify the epidural space. Was considered as a sign of correct identification of the epidural space to absorption of anesthetic vertical branch of the device and the percentage of success was measured.

Results. The age of the sample was 33.9 ± 14.6 years old (18-75 years). The weight was 33.9 ± 14.6 kg (50-98 kg) and height 1.59 ± 0.6 m. Normal weight was found in 40%, overweight in 39.4% and obesity in 20.6 %.

Space was located correctly in 98.1% of cases with an error of 1.9%. Compared to 18% error reported with classical technique Gutiérrez the difference was highly significant (P = 0.0004)

Discussion. The correct localization of the epidural space with a simple and easy device management is emerging as getting a fully valid alternative especially for anesthesiologist in training.

KEYWORDS. EPIDURAL ANESTHESIA, PENDANT DROP GUTIERREZ, VICENTE CORRAL MOSCOSA HOSPITAL: JOSE CARRASCO ARTEAGA HOSPITAL; CUENCA – ECUADOR