Management and visualization of a kinked epidural catheter.

A lumbar epidural catheter inserted in a 29-year-old woman for labor analgesia. The catheter failed to provide adequate analgesia. Moreover, after labor, it proved difficult to be removed. After computer tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance impedance (MRI) examination the course of the catheter was visible, the entrapped catheter was dislodged intact, revealing a kinking near its distal tip. Kinking of an epidural catheter leading to entrapment is an unusual complication of epidural catheterization.