Anesthetic experience does not reduce accidental dural puncture in surgical patients: a retrospective case-controlled...

Accidental dural puncture (ADP), which is a complication of epidural anesthesia, still exists and leads to worse outcomes in surgical patients. While residency training is important for epidural competency, it remains unknown whether anesthetic experience reduces ADP in surgical patients. Using an incident reporting system along with anesthetic records, this case-controlled study retrospectively investigated risk factors associated with ADP in surgical patients.

Patients who experienced ADP during epidural anesthesia who were registered in the incident reporting system of our institution between April 2012 and March 2019 were enrolled. Patients with ADP were control-matched with those who without ADP in a 1:3 ratio, to compare the potential risk factors and calculated odds ratios (ORs) for ADP. The primary hypothesis was that anesthesiologists' experience reduces the incidence of ADP. The secondary hypothesis was that there are risk factors for ADP. Between-group differences in anesthesiologists' experience were compared using the Mann-Whitney U test. Significance was set at P < 0.05.

Thirty-five patients who experienced ADP were identified from the incident reporting system. These were matched with 69 patients who did not experience ADP. There was no difference in the years of experience of anesthesiologists between the groups that did and did not experience ADP (8 [3-20] vs. 9 [3-18] years, respectively; P = 0.65).

Having an experienced anesthesiologist did not guarantee the prevention of ADP. Daily individual training and briefings would be needed to reduce the incidence of ADP.