There are no absolute indications for spinal or epidural anesthesia (Bernards CM, Hostetter LS. Epidural and spinal anesthesia. In: Barash PG, Cullen BF, Stoelting RK, Cahalan MK, Ortega R, Stock MC, eds.Clinical Anesthesia.Philadelphia: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins; 2013:905–934). Spinal anesthesia and epidural anesthesia have been shown to blunt the “stress response” to surgery, decrease intraoperative blood loss, lower the incidence of postoperative thromboembolic events, possibly decrease morbidity in high-risk surgical patients, and serve as a useful method to extend analgesia into the postoperative period (better analgesia than can be achieved with parenteral opioids).