[Analysis of factors leading to prescheduled analgesic withdrawal in patients with postoperative epidural analgesia].
OBJECTIVE
To analyze the factors leading to prescheduled analgesic withdrawal in patients with postoperative epidural analgesia.


METHODS
A retrospective study of 4876 patients with postoperative epidural analgesia was conducted and the effect of analgesia and incidence of prescheduled analgesic withdrawal were recorded. The factors precipitating the occurrences of analgesic withdrawal and complications were analyzed.


RESULTS
Early analgesic withdrawal occurred in 113 cases (2.3%), among which 74 (0.5%) were due to factors irrelevant to analgesic complications. Analgesia-related complications occurred in 578 patients, but only 39 (0.7%) of them needed discontinuation of the analgesics.


CONCLUSIONS
Prescheduled analgesic withdrawal is predominantly due to technical inadequacies rather than complications arising from the analgesics, and improvement of the operation skills for postoperative analgesia may reduce early analgesia discontinuation and enhance the patients' satisfaction.
Department of Anesthesiology, First Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou 510080, China. colour47@163.com
Shi-qing
SQ
Lin
Jian-hong
JH
Ye
Ding-xiu
DX
He
Fan
F
Yang
Wen-qi
WQ
Huang
Lai-bao
LB
Sun
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D015360:Analgesia, Epidural / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011183:Postoperative Complications; D011184:Postoperative Period; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D013997:Time Factors; D055815:Young Adult