Regional anaesthesia, of which epidural anaesthesia and spinal anaesthesia are subsets, is a medical process that halts nerve communication to the brain to block sensation in a specific area of the body under treatment.
Regional anaesthesia involves the introduction of drugs with the intention of blocking the nerve supply to a specific part of the body, such as a limb, so the patient cannot feel pain in that area when a surgical operation is performed. Unlike general anaesthesia, the patient remains awake, resulting in reduced side-effects and enabling the surgeon to converse with the patient during the procedure.
Regional anaesthesia is now more common than general anaesthesia for caesarian section procedures.
