A method of pain relief that can be given to a woman during childbirth by injection into the spinal fluid. The effect only lasts 1–2 hours, and therefore the medication can only be given at the time of birth, and not in advance.
a single injection into the back, and an epidural block is placed through a catheter, or narrow tube, into the back
An anesthetic injection that numbs the lower half of the body.
A form of anesthesia that numbs the lower half of the body.
technique for controlling pain or spasticity by injecting drugs into the spinal column.
A spinal block is similar to an epidural block, but the anesthetic is injected into the space below the spinal cord, rather than into the area around it. With this anesthesia, the procedure can be performed more quickly and easily than with an epidural, but only one dose can be given, which lasts about two hours. Spinal blocks are used for about 40 percent of cesarean births.
Lumbar puncture where a local anesthetic agent is injected directly into the cerebral spinal fluid. Usually, within one minute, the nerve roots are affected, as compared to ten to twenty minutes for an epidural block. A spinal block uses only about 10% as much anesthetic agent as needed for the epidural block, since the anesthetic does not have to diffuse through the meninges to reach the CSF. The nerve roots in the dural sac are blocked by spinal anesthesia, and control of the amount of anesthetic injected and the positioning of the patient relates to the number of spinal cord segmental levels being blocked. So that the anesthetic agent will flow in the right direction and not toward the head, affecting the nerves controlling vital functions (respiration, etc.) the patientï3/4's head should be higher than the feet. (See epidural block)
labor anesthetic that is injected into the fluid surrounding the spinal cord.