Epidural abscess complicating insertion of epidural catheters

Editor—We read with interest the case reports on epiduralabscesses by Phillips and colleagues¹ as well as the relatedcorrespondence from Hearn.² In total, 6143 epidurals have beenperformed in the University Hospitals of Leicester between February1994 and August 2001. During this period there have been sixepidural abscesses reported from two hospitals in the trust.This is an incidence of 0.1%, which is very close to the incidencereported by Phillips of 0.125%.¹ The incidence reported elsewherevaries between 0.01% and 0.05%, but our results suggest a significantlyhigher rate.^3–5 One patient was a 57-yr-old male who was admitted for an IvorLewis oesophagectomy for adenocarcinoma of the gastro-oesophagealjunction. His past medical history included bronchiectasis.He was admitted 5 days before surgery for optimization withbronchodilators and regular physiotherapy. Surgery was performedunder general anaesthesia with an epidural sited at T7/8, requiring