Chronic pain relief with epidural systems is a therapy that still requires researches to evaluate its effectivity, complications and costs in our reality. In order to prepare the patients and family to self-care, we elaborated an educative program that is presented here. We had studied 27 patients (17 with oncological pain and 19 with chronic pain non oncological) and evaluated the risks and benefits with this therapy. We discuss also the role of the nurse in the aspects of education, assessment of therapeutic answers and prevention of complications.