EXTRADURAL CATHETER-RELATED INFECTIONS IN PATIENTS WITH INFECTED CUTANEOUS WOUNDS

We report three previously healthy individuals, aged 19-40 yr, with co -existing infected tower limb cutaneous wounds, who developed, in all probability, spinal space infections complicating continuous extradura l analgesia. as the number of patients with extradural catheters and l arge cutaneous wounds represents a small fraction of the total number of patients with extradural catheters, three cases of presumed spinal space infection over a 4-yr period suggests that extradural analgesia with a catheter technique in this clinical situation is unsafe.