[Combined spinal and epidural analgesia in urology]

Combined spinal and epidural analgesia is a new concept in the field of regional anesthesia. It combines the positive qualities of spinal and epidural analgesia, and is performed by the "needle-in-needle" technique, described in the paper. This type of analgesia is practically implemented in the Clinical Center of Urology over the past few months, and shows encouraging results. This is a report on clinical experience had with 10 combined analgesia procedures, running a course free of any complications against the background of stable hemodynamics and respiration of the patients. The block induced is with 4-hour duration, and lends itself to prolongation through an epidural catheter. This renders the method variable and suited for postoperative analgesia too. The Espokan set technical devices used make puncture of the spinal-epidural space readily practicable.