Epidural catheter placed by anesthesiologist; he notes: "positioned sitting upright, approach midline, needle (# 17 gauge, placed via loss of resistance technique (saline), depth of epidural space: 7cm; catheter depth at skin: 10 cm; catheter inserted into epidural space:3 cm; insertion level: l2-3." about 6 hours later, the patient delivered her baby vaginally.Post delivery the nurse tried to remove the catheter and met resistance, so she stopped.She called the charge rn who repositioned the patient, then attempted to pull out the catheter, but also met resistance and stopped.The crna was called.He attempted and when he pulled the catheter, it snapped/broke.At that point, the anesthesiologist was notified.He could see a bit of the catheter poking out under the skin, so he numbed the area and attempted to grasp the end of it from under the skin.He was unable to retrieve the cath, and because of the tension, it coiled back into the back.Afterwards, the anesthesiologist noted that there was no obvious problem with the catheter, and no visible knots on ct.He indicated that perhaps he could have removed it with some positioning techniques.For this reason, i do not believe this retained broken epidural catheter was caused by a catheter defect; but i did want the fda and manufacturer to be aware of this.The following day, the patient went to surgery and had the 7.5 cm catheter piece removed from her back.It is available in our pathology department for inspection, but we will not be releasing it.
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