Paraplegia, a severe complication to epidural analgesia

We report four cases where continuous epidural analgesia resulted in epidural abscesses (EA) causing spinal cord damage and paraplegia. The first symptom of EA was intense back pain, which developed 0-20 days after removal of the epidural catheter. The diagnosis of EA was not made prior to the development of severe neurologic disturbances in any of the patients. In all cases there was a time lag of 2-4 days between the first symptoms and institution of the appropriate treatment.