Extradural catheter-related infections in patients with infected cutaneous wounds.

We report three previously healthy individuals, aged 19-40 yr, with co-existing infected lower limb cutaneous wounds, who developed, in all probability, spinal space infections complicating continuous extradural analgesia. As the number of patients with extradural catheters and large cutaneous wounds represents a small fraction of the total number of patients with extradural catheters, three cases of presumed spinal space infection over a 4-yr period suggests that extradural analgesia with a catheter technique in this clinical situation is unsafe.