Abstract

A 44-year-old man with an established postdural puncture headache was scheduled to undergo extracorporeal shock-wave lithotripsy (ESWL) as an outpatient. On admission to the outpatient unit, a lumbar epidural catheter was inserted and used to perform an epidural blood patch. This procedure relieved the headache, and 2 hours later epidural anesthesia for his ESWL was administered via the same epidural catheter. The patient had satisfactory epidural anesthesia and longterm relief of his headache with this approach.