Eli5: Since epidurals are so commonly used to subside pain during active labor and child birth, why are they not used during other major medical procedures?
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This has a few parts so I’ll break it down. Epidurals are used in child birth because they offer anesthesia from pain but while allowing the patient to still be conscious and push out a baby. During surgery it’s generally preferable for the patient to be unconscious as well as not feeling pain, so an epidural is not recommended, general anesthesia is. For certain procedures like limb surgery or hand surgery a similar concept can be used called a nerve block, where only the nerve in that one limb is anesthetized, however the rest of the body is not. This is preferable when you want someone to be able to go home after a procedure like in ambulatory surgery or hand laceration repairs. It’s really all about what you need from the patient, while making them as comfortable as possible, the first law of medical ethics is to do no harm for a reason.
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