Epidural analgesia is one of the available treatment options when it comes to metastatic bone pain treatment, especially if the disease has entered into its advanced, metastatic stage; however, the administration of such analgesia is often limited in duration due to threatening complications, cessation of analgesic effect and/or catheter-related complications. This case report deals with a prostate cancer patient with metastatic spread into the pelvis and lower extremities. Once the oral and transdermal analgesia ceased to yield sufficient effect and following the completion of an active oncological treatment, the patient was provided with an epidural catheter in order to be able to cope with pain that rendered his walking impossible. An epidural catheter had been in place for seven months in a row, until the time of death. The patient had self-administered analgesics (bupivacaine + fentanyl) at home in form of intermittent boluses 3x a day through the epidural catheter. The catheter itself and its insertion point had been changed every 3-4 weeks. Owing to the epidural analgesia, the patient was able to walk again, to avoid systemic analgesic effects and to cope with pain. This case report aims at highlighting the possibility of multi-month successful administration of analgesics via a regularly changed epidural catheter subject to asepsis maintenance.

SEVEN MONTH-LONG EPIDURAL ADMINISTRATION OF ANALGESICS INTENDED FOR METASTATIC BONE PAIN TREATMENT - A CASE REPORT