[Treatment of pain via a cervical epidural catheter]

Cervical epidural anaesthesia (CEA) is a method suitable for regional anaesthesia of the upper extremity. CEA seems useful for postoperative pain relief after surgery in the shoulder region or both upper extremities, especially when the postoperative pain relief must be long lasting (days), and when it is desirable that the patient be able to actively move his affected joints during rehabilitation. Potential side effects of the method are respiratory- and haemodynamic changes. Thus, CEA is inappropriate for patients with severe respiratory disease, and in patients for whom extensive sympathetic block may prove disastrous (e.g. congestive heart failure, hypovolaemia).