Risks of Epidural Analgesia for Labor
Posted by Clark Venable on 7/30/2006
Anesthesiology has a nice article which attempt to quantify some of the less common risks of having an epidural during labor: epidural hematoma, infection, and neurologic injury.
Epidural hematoma 1 in 168,000 6 per million Deep epidural infection 1 in 145,000 7 per million Persistent neurologic injury 1 in 240,000 4 per million Transient neurologic injury
[< 1 year]1 in 6,700 180 per million
It contains an interesting tidbit others might find interesting, too. There are 4 million births in the United States each year and 2.4 million involve epidural analgesia. Wow. That's three fifth of all live birth get an epidural! (And some call nights, it seems every single one does...)
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