Prophylactic vs therapeutic blood patch for obstetric patients with accidental dural puncture – a randomised controlled trial

M. H. Stein Associate Professor et al

Anaesthesia

Volume 69, Issue 4, pages 320–326, April 2014

Patients who sustained an accidental dural puncture during establishment of epidural analgesia during labour or at caesarean delivery were randomly assigned to receive a prophylactic epidural blood patch or conservative treatment with a therapeutic epidural blood patch if required. Eleven of 60 (18.3%) patients in the prophylactic epidural blood patch group developed a post-dural puncture headache compared with 39 of 49 (79.6%) in the therapeutic epidural blood patch group (p < 0.0001). A blood patch was performed in 36 (73.4%) of patients in the therapeutic group. The number of patients who needed a second blood patch did not differ significantly between the two groups: 6 (10.0%) for prophylactic epidural blood patch and 4 (11.1%) for therapeutic epidural blood patch. We conclude that prophylactic epidural blood patch is an effective method to reduce the development of post-dural puncture headache in obstetric patients.