Hadzic's Regional Anesthesia > Part III. Clinical Practice of Regional Anesthesia > Section Two. Neuraxial Anesthesia > Chapter 16. Combined Spinal–Epidural Anesthesia J. Sudharma Ranasinghe, MD, FFARCSI, Elyad Davidson, MD, David J. Birnbach, MD

Combined Spinal–Epidural Anesthesia: Introduction

"In recent years, regional anesthesia techniques for surgery, obstetrics, and postoperative pain management have been used with increasing frequency.^1–3 The combined spinal–epidural (CSE) technique, a comparatively new anesthetic technique, includes an initial subarachnoid injection followed by epidural catheter placement and administration of epidural medications. This allows for almost immediate relief of pain or induction of regional anesthesia by the rapid onset of the spinal drugs, and subsequent administration of medications for prolonged anesthesia. In addition postoperative analgesia via the epidural catheter can be delivered for extended periods...."