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Canadian Journal of Anesthesia/Journal canadien d'anesthésie
Published in: Canadian Journal of Anesthesia/Journal canadien d'anesthésie 4/2019

01-04-2019 | Editorials

Determination of thoracic epidural catheter placement: electrical epidural stimulation (Tsui test) is simple, effective, and under-utilized

Authors: M. Kwesi Kwofie, MD, Gordon Launcelott, MD, Ban C. H. Tsui, MSc, MD

Published in: Canadian Journal of Anesthesia/Journal canadien d'anesthésie | Issue 4/2019

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Excerpt

The incidence of failure to achieve adequate postoperative analgesia via a thoracic epidural catheter has been reported to exceed 30%.1,2 This speaks to the difficulty of assessing correct catheter placement in the epidural space that directly relates to its function. Bearing this in mind, we were pleased to read the article in this issue of the Journal, by Balki et al.,3 which compared the agreement between the responses with a standard local anesthetic test dose and with the epidural electrical stimulation test (EEST) in patients undergoing abdominal surgery. The study demonstrated that the EEST is a sensitive and effective test for confirming the correct position of a thoracic epidural catheter, which relates to its ability to provide adequate postoperative epidural analgesia. …
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Metadata
Title
Determination of thoracic epidural catheter placement: electrical epidural stimulation (Tsui test) is simple, effective, and under-utilized
Authors
M. Kwesi Kwofie, MD
Gordon Launcelott, MD
Ban C. H. Tsui, MSc, MD
Publication date
01-04-2019
Publisher
Springer International Publishing
Published in
Canadian Journal of Anesthesia/Journal canadien d'anesthésie / Issue 4/2019
Print ISSN: 0832-610X
Electronic ISSN: 1496-8975
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/s12630-019-01302-1

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