There may be a lower risk of deep vein thrombosis (DVT) compared to general anaesthesia.Epidural anaesthesia may reduce the amount of blood you lose during surgery compared to general anaesthesia.This means you’ll be less likely to feel sick, you’ll be more alert and your breathing will be better. If the epidural continues after your operation, you won’t need so many other painkilling medicines.

This can help you recover better afterwards. If you do have general anaesthesia, having an epidural as well might mean you need less of the general anaesthetic medicine.This means you’ll avoid the possible side-effects of a general anaesthetic, such as feeling sick, or getting a sore throat or a chest infection. Having an epidural might mean you don’t have to have a general anaesthetic.Your anaesthetist may recommend you have an epidural for several reasons. You control the flow of medicine by pressing a button on an epidural pump. You might be given control of the infusion, which is called patient-controlled epidural analgesia (PCEA). The epidural can be left in for a few days after your operation with the medicines being topped up to give you continuing pain relief. Or you can have a combination of an epidural and a general anaesthetic to improve pain relief. You can have epidural anaesthesia instead of general anaesthesia for some types of surgery, such as surgery on your pelvis or legs.

Your anaesthetist can control how much feeling you lose by selecting the amount, strength and type of medicine they use. These will temporarily block the feeling in your body below the site of the injection, usually in your pelvic area and legs. The types of medicine usually given as an epidural include local anaesthetics and sometimes other pain-relieving medicines. This catheter allows medicines to be delivered directly around your spinal nerves as they leave your spinal cord. This area is called the epidural space, which is where the name of this type of anaesthetic comes from. Your anaesthetist uses a needle to put a small plastic tube (called a catheter) into the area around your spinal cord in your back. It’s carried out by a specialist doctor called an anaesthetist. Epidural anaesthesia is a type of regional anaesthesia, which stops you feeling pain in part of your body without making you go to sleep.

Epidural after effects