Session Key Points
- Spinals and epidurals are widely used and are useful techniques in many clinical scenarios
- They offer a number of distinct advantages over simple general anaesthesia
- Similarly, they have a number of disadvantages
- Patients, surgeons and anaesthetists may have misapprehensions which affect their opinion of the relative merits of these techniques
- Understanding all of the factors involved enables the anaesthetist to assess the options and recommend an appropriate technique
