Abstract
We retrospectively examined the incidence of unilateral paresthesia of the lower extremities associated with postoperative epidural analgesia in our hospital. In half a year, 896 patients received continuous epidural analgesia postoperatively. The number of patients who complained of unilateral paraesthesia in the morning after operation was 37 (4.1%), and in 4 out of these 37 patients paresthesia was accompanied by apparent muscle weakness in the lower extremities. In 36 patients, the symptoms disappeared within 3 hours after the removal of the catheter. It should be noted that 19% of these patients requested the removal of the catheter even after we explained the reversibility of these symptoms and the effective analgesia attained by the catheter. Although these complications were reversible in this investigation, it is important to differentiate them from irreversible nerve injury and to make the epidural analgesia more acceptable to patients.
