POST DURAL PUNCTURE HEADACHE IN CAESAREAN SECTION-A COMPARATIVE STUDY USING 25 G QUINCKE , 27 G QUINCKE AND 27 G WHITACRE NEEDLE

August Bier (1898) introduced spinal analgesia in clinical practice. Since then, the technique has been widely practiced to provide anaesthesia, particularly for surgery below umbilicus. The main advantage attributed to this technique are its simplicity, its ease of performance, requirement of minimum apparatus, has minimal effect on blood biochemistry, ensures optimum level of arterial blood gases, patients remains conscious during surgery and maintains airway, requires minimal post operative care and post operative analgesia. Since the introduction of spinal analgesia, headache has remained a well-recognized complication. The incidence of PDPH does not occur in all patients who received lumbar puncture for diagnostic or anaesthetic reasons and is found to be more common after Caesarean section in young parturients.1,2 A few decades ago less refined and thicker spinal needles were being used and the incidence of PDPH was high.2,3,4 But within the last 15 years more refined and thinner needles of 24 G to 28 G have been used more often and the incidence of PDPH is grossly reduced to less than 3 to 5%.5,6,7 The present study was designed to compare the incidence of post lumbar puncture headache after 25 G Quincke and 27 G Qunicke needle and 27 G Whitacre needle during spinal anaesthesia in cases of Caesarean section.