2026 Volume 269 Issue 2 Pages 211-216
Epidural analgesia is widely used for pain management, but catheter placement requires a high level of skill. Recently, mixed reality (MR) technology has gained attention in medicine, with potential applications in improving procedural success and training anesthesiologists. We developed a novel approach for three-dimensional (3D) visualization of a patient’s spine using MR technology. A patient with a history of difficult epidural catheter placement successfully received epidural anesthesia from a second-year anesthesiology resident using MR-assisted 3D spine visualization. The MR technology was used for 3 min and 8 s, and catheter placement took 10 min and 54 s. This case shows that MR-based 3D spine visualization may enhance the success and safety of epidural anesthesia. To our knowledge, this is the first report of MR technology being used for this purpose, highlighting its potential for both clinical practice and anesthesiology training. Further investigation is warranted.
