Compuflo® Assisted Training vs Conventional Training for the Identification of the Ligamentum Flavum With an Epidural Simulator

The investigators enrolled 60 trainees who have never performed an epidural block. After having had a standardized learning module on epidural anatomy and technique, each trainee practiced the epidural and the Compuflo®-assisted LORT on the simulator for a maximum of 5 attemps. Trainees were asked to stop the needle entrance whenever they felt a sensation of an increase of resistance due to the penetration of the needle in the LF. The correct position of the needle was verified by an expert instructor. The number of attempts was noted. The power analysis required a sample size of 60 observations to set 80% test power and a 95% significance. Unpaired T-test was used to evaluate the differences in the number of epidural attempts. A logistic regression model was used to correlate the "success at the first attempt ratio" and the technique used.