Background 
Intravascular injection is one of the complications of caudal epidural injection, which can cause embolization and local anesthetics systemic toxicity as well as failure of procedure. Whitacre type needle has been reported to be effective to reduce intravascular injection during transforaminal epidural injection. Therefore, we compared Whitacre type needle and Chiba needle on incidence of intravascular injection during caudal epidural injection.
Methods
A total of 164 caudal epidural injections were performed in patients with disc herniation or spinal stenosis on lumbosacral region. Patients were randomly allocated to Group W (n=82) and Group C (n=82). Patients in Group W received caudal epidural injection using Whitacre type needle and those in groups C received the procedure using Chiba type needle. Intravascular injection was assessed with blood aspiration and angiography during real-time fluoroscopy.
Results
There were no differences between groups in terms of patient characteristics. There was no significant difference on incidence of intravascular injection between Group W and Groups C (19.5% vs 11.0%, P=0.128). In addition, there were no complications associated with procedure in both group.
Conclusions
In this study, Whitacre type needle do not reduce the incidence of intravascular injection, compared to Chiba type needle.

Comparison of the incidence of intravascular injection during caudal epidural injections between Whitacre and Chiba type needles