The Effect of Epidural Blood Patch on Lumbar Puncture Headache Caused by Epidural Heedle

We studied the effect of epidural blood patch (EBP) on prevention of lumbar puncture headache (LPH) in patients who had inadvertent dural puncture (DP) with a 17-gauge Hanaoka needle (H needle) or Touhy needle. A total of 122 patients were randomly divided into two groups: a prophylactic EBP group (n=58) and non-EBP group (n=64). In the patients of the EBP group, an average volume of 8.5ml of autologous blood was injected into the epidural space through an epidural catheter soon after accidental DP occured. There was no difference between the EBP group (25.9%) and non-EBP group (34.4%) in the frequency of post-operative LPH. The incidence of post-operative EBP was higher in the non-EBP group (25%) than in the EBP group (5.2%) (p