[The administration of continuous epidural block under prone position with fluoroscopic guidance]

Continuous epidural block is often used for the treatment of pain. But there have been unsuccessful cases by the routine blind method. We devised a modified method of administering continuous epidural block under prone position with fluoroscopic guidance. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the utility of our modified method. There were 18 cases with pain of lumbar region and 28 cases of thoracocervical region in whom it was not possible to obtain successful control of pain by routine method. By our method, 14 cases (77.8%) with pain of lumbar region and 24 cases (85.7%) of thoracocervical region had effective epidural catheterization. There was no complication. As unsuccessful cases were accompanied with epidural adhesion or psychological disease, they might have no indication for continuous epidural block.