title: Epidural opioids for postoperative pain relief following hepatectomy.
abstract: Postoperative pain relief with epidural morphine or buprenorphine and intramuscular morphine was investigated in 67 patients undergoing hepatectomy. When the patient first complained of pain after surgery, 1 or 2mg of epidural morphine, or 0.06 mg of epidural buprenorphine given either at T 10-11 or L 3-4, or 0.1 mg/kg of morphine intramuscularly was administered. Lumbar epidural morphine 2mg, as well as thoracic epidural morphine 2mg, produced excellent and long-lasting pain relief. Nine of 12 patients receiving thoracic epidural buprenorphine 0.06 mg were completely pain-free. Thoracic epidural morphine 1 mg and lumbar epidural buprenorphine 0.06 mg produced incomplete analgesia. Analgesic duration of intramuscular morphine tended to be shorter than that of 2 mg of epidural morphine. PaCO2 increased significantly following thoracic epidural morphine 2 mg, although PaCO2 did not change after lumbar epidural morphine 2 mg. No patient had serious side effects. The lumbar epidural administration of 2 mg morphine may be recommended for postoperative analgesia following hepatectomy.
authors.affiliation: Department of Anesthesiology and Intensive Care Medicine, Osaka City University Medical School, Japan.
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Yukioka
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Fujimori
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D002047:Buprenorphine / Q000008:administration & dosage*; D005260:Female; D006498:Hepatectomy; D006801:Humans; D007268:Injections, Epidural; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009020:Morphine / Q000008:administration & dosage*; D010149:Postoperative Pain / Q000188:drug therapy*
chemical_list: D002047:Buprenorphine; D009020:Morphine