Do You Ever Thread an Intrathecal Catheter?

Dr. Galvin: Almost never do we purposely do an intrathecal catheter. If it happens, an accident is fine. But if it's a purposeful technique, I think you have to take into consideration the post-or puncture header headache rate. And then depending on your catheters, those are multi-orifice or not, your bolus and our maintenance regimen, the failure rate is pretty high for catheters that have been threaded after non-intended dural puncture. So when you're doing this technique, you have to understand you're doing an off-label technique, which is permissible, but you're setting yourself up potentially for some problems