[Epidural anesthesia and esophageal atresia. Apropos of a case].

We report the good results of a thoracic epidural analgesia for oesophageal atresia repair in a 3-day old girl. Surgery was performed under light general anaesthesia combined with a single epidural injection of bupivacaine 0.25% (0.5 ml.kg-1) with epinephrine through a 19 G catheter (T7 space, descending to T5). During the three following days, a continuous epidural infusion was used (0.2 ml.kg-1.h-1 bupivacaine 0.125%). Intraoperative analgesia and postoperative analgesia were adequate, the latter being assessed by the Barrier-Amiel-Tison pain scale. Thus heavy postoperative care could be avoided, namely mechanical ventilation. Recovery was uneventful.