A prospective, observational study of the relationship between lumbar epidural space depth and body mass index in Malaysian parturients / Dr. Isnul Hady Ismail

Epidural have been around for long time, but it only became.widely used for pain relief in labour once the suitable local anaesthetic, called bupivacaine became available. Epidural anesthesia is occasionally difficult in pregnant patients due to obesity and edema [1,2,3,4,6] that frequently obscure anatomical landmarks, increasing the incidence of failure. Additionally, during pregnancy, the hormonal changes can affect the tissue consistency resulting in false loss of resistance.