[Effectiveness of epidural administration of saline solutions to prevent or treat postdural puncture headache]

Epidural anesthesia is the most versatile and widely used of the techniques for regional anesthesia. The most common complication of epidural or spinal anesthesia is postdural puncture headache. The loss of cerebrospinal fluid through the hole can be an important causative factor of this cephalalgia. Of the many methods recommended for preventing and treating postdural puncture headache, one is bolus administration or infusion of saline solution into the epidural space, by which both epidural and subarachnoid pressures are increased. We have reviewed the literature evaluating the effectiveness of this technique from 1967 to 2004, using the following search terms: anesthesia, spinal; anesthesia, epidural; analgesia, epidural; headache; postdural puncture treatment or prophylaxis; epidural injection; epidural saline. Few articles were found. The studies had small samples and most did not include a control group. The doses and methods of epidural administration of saline solutions were highly variable and the results were often contradictory. We conclude that using this technique to prevent and/or treat postdural puncture headache is difficult to justify.