Korean J Anesthesiol.  2009 May;56(5):531-534. 10.4097/kjae.2009.56.5.531.

Estimating lumbar epidural space depth in infants and children of Korea

• Choi JB
• Hong JY
• Kim JS
• Kil HK

• KMID: 1782591
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.4097/kjae.2009.56.5.531

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Lumbar epidural block is now a popular technique for anesthesia and post operative analgesia. It may be helpful for prevention of complication during this procedure to know the depth from the skin to the lumbar epidural space before the procedure. This study was undertaken to evaluate the depth from the skin to the lumbar epidural space and to determine any potential relationship between a patient's data (age, weight, and height) and the measured depth in Korean children.
METHODS
We investigated the electronic records of 662 Korean children who were received urologic surgeries with epidural catheterization for postoperative analgesia. The patients' gender, age, weight, height and epidural depth were recorded and analyzed with multiple linear regression test using SPSS 13.0 (SPSS Co., Ilinois, USA).
RESULTS
The patient's age and weight were significantly correlated to the skin-epidural space depth in Korean children. Body weight was more significant variable than age on the epidural depth. The empirical formula derived from the results was as follow; epidural depth (mm) = 9 + 0.5 x body weight (kg) - 0.2 x age (months).
CONCLUSIONS
We suggest that the depth of skin-lumbar epidural space can be estimated with the empirical formula based on body weight and age.

Keyword

Body weight; Children; Epidural depth; Lumbar epidural block; Lumbar epidural space

MeSH Terms

Analgesia
Anesthesia
Body Weight
Catheterization
Catheters
Child
Electronics
Electrons
Epidural Space
Humans
Infant
Korea
Linear Models
Skin