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REGIONAL ANESTHESIA

The Mechanical Properties of Continuous Spinal Small-Bore Catheters

Engelbert Deusch, MD^*, Justus Benrath, MD^*, Lukas Weigl, PhD^*, Konrad Neumann, PhD, and Sibylle A. Kozek-Langenecker, MD^*

*Department of General Anesthesiology and Intensive Care-B, Vienna Medical University, General Hospital Vienna, Vienna, Austria; and Charité-University Medicine Berlin, Campus Benjamin Franklin, Department for Medical Computer Science, Biometry and Epidemiology, Berlin, Germany

Address correspondence to Engelbert Deusch, MD, Department of Anesthesiology and Intensive Care-B, Vienna Medical University, General Hospital Vienna, Waehringer Guertel 18-20, A-1090 Vienna, Austria, E.C. Address e-mail to engelbert.deusch{at}meduniwien.ac.at

Continuous spinal anesthesia (CSA) has a nearly 100-yr history. In situations of difficult removal of a CSA small-bore catheter, mechanical properties of the different catheters might be important, because breakage could occur. We compared 5 different CSA small-bore catheters, 22- to 28-gauge from 3 manufacturers, for tensile strength, tensile stress, distension, and yield strength. Maximal tensile strength is the force applied before breakage of the catheter. The material characteristics of different CSA small-bore catheters for maximal tensile strength were: 22-gauge = 29.56 ± 1.56 (mean ± SD) Newton (N), 24-gauge = 16.77 ± 1.61 N, 25-gauge = 9.20 ± 0.48 N, 27-gauge = 4.61 ± 0.25 N, 28-gauge = 5.07 ± 0.59 N at room temperature. A strong correlation between maximal tensile strength and the outer diameter (r = 0.957, P < 0.001) and maximal tensile strength and the wall thickness (r = 0.9, P < 0.001) was observed. Although extrapolation from experimental studies to clinical routine should be made with care, our data suggest that catheters with higher-strength characteristics may reduce the risk of catheter breakage in patients, although clinical correlations are lacking.

IMPLICATIONS: Material characteristics of continuous spinal anesthesia small-bore catheters are very different. Although extrapolation from experimental studies to clinical routine should be made with care, our data suggest that catheters with higher strength characteristics may reduce the risk of catheter breakage in patients.

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