dural tap

[bluedogs]

With my DS I had an elective c section. I had an epidural which was messed up and I ended up with a dural tap i.e. they inserted the needle to far into my spine. Fortunately I didn't get the headache. The woman next to me did - and she was in a real state. So I'm worried that this could happen again. Are my chances of having a dural tap increased because I had one the first time i.e. funny shaped spine or something or was it pure bad luck and a useless aneasethists?

I think you can request an appointment with an aneasthetist to have that clarified if the MW herself isn't sure.

Agree with pupuce. Speak to anaesthetist and ask what the chances are of this happening again. I thought this was very rare. Am surprised to hear it happened to you and the woman next to you... maybe it was an inexperienced anesthetist.

bluedogs - you would be better to have a spinal anaesthetic instead of epidural. Essentially spinal anaethetic is put into space that epidural accidentally punctured. A spinal needle is shaped differenly so that the space the needle enters closes immediately. Spinal work much more quickly than epidural. That is the type of anaesthetics most commonly used for elective C/S.

Yup there were mutterings from various other medical professionals about "butcher aneasethetist". Statistics vary between 1 in 200 to 1 in 800 chances of this happening. Will ask about a spinal. Thanks for the responses.

When I had an elective caesarean at Queen Charlotte last May, the usual procedure was to give a spinal and to insert an epidural, just in case anything should go wring and the spinal should start to wear off before surgery finished. They said this was routine procedure. I've had 3 epidurals in my life and never had any problem with any of them.