Epidural Anesthesia Is Effective in Lower-Extremity Burn Pain Treatment: A Case Report

Abstract

Burn wounds cause pain through various mechanisms, making pain management challenging. Although treatment and management strategies for healing burns have been developed, clear guidelines for analgesia in burn injuries are lacking. Opioids are commonly used for pain relief, but regional anesthesia performed by anesthesiologists has shown effectiveness in some cases. We encountered a case in which epidural anesthesia was effective for analgesia of a lower-extremity burn injury in a 19-year-old man. The patient with burn injuries to his lower extremities was transferred to the emergency department. On the day of the injury, an epidural catheter was administered for burn pain. The epidural anesthesia was removed during hospitalization, but the pain worsened, so it was placed again to provide adequate analgesia. In this case, epidural anesthesia proved effective for managing the lower-extremity burn pain and facilitated patient rehabilitation. Epidural anesthesia should be actively considered for the management of burn pain.