Incidence and management of post-dural puncture headache following spinal anaesthesia and accidental dural puncture from a non-obstetric hospital: A retrospective analysis

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Post-dural puncture headache (PDPH) is one of the complications following spinal anaesthesia (SA) and accidental dural puncture (ADP). In our institute, we routinely practice epidural analgesia (EA) for supra-major surgeries. Our previous audit on EA revealed 4% incidence of ADP. This lead us to a clinical initiative to follow-up patients with dural puncture (DP) to note the incidence, presentation, associated symptoms and treatment of PDPH. Herewith, we present the retrospective analysis over a 2-year period. METHODS: Following institutional review board approval, the follow-up notes of patients who had DP from May 2011 to April 2013 were analysed retrospectively (using SPSS 20 version) with respect to the needle size, level of DP, reinsertion of epidural catheter, details of ongoing analgesics, incidence and severity of PDPH and treatment received. RESULTS: In 2 years, we found that the incidence of PDPH in the patients who received SA was 3.9% and 25% in the ADP group. There was a positive association between needle size, type and PDPH, and it was seen more in the 20–40 age group. The commonest presentation of PDPH was occipital/frontal headache within 96 h and lasted for a mean of 3 days. All patients received pharmacological treatment. Seventy-one per cent of patients (25) were either on coffee or caffeine tablets. One case of intractable PDPH responded well to oral pregabalin 75 mg. CONCLUSION: PDPH severity and incidence following ADP in our centre is lower than the reported incidence from obstetric centres and can be effectively controlled with drug treatment only.