title: Effects of epidural analgesia with different concentrations of bupivacaine plus fentanyl on pain in patients undergoing thoracic surgery.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To investigate and compared the efficacy and safety of epidural analgesia with different concentrations of bupivacaine plus fentanyl on pain in patients undergoing thoracic surgery.
  
  
  METHODS
  120 cases undergoing elective thoracic surgery were randomly divided into A, B, C and D four groups each with 30 cases, and they were treated with 0.25% (A group), 0.375% (B group), 0.50% (C group) and 0.75% (D group) bupivacaine plus fentanyl 0.4 mg. The pain conditions postoperative 4 h, 8 h, 12 h, 24 h and 48 h were evaluated by visual analogue scale (VAS). The PCA pressing numbers and incidence of adverse reactions were compared between the four groups.
  
  
  RESULTS
  By postoperative 4 h, the VAS in D group were obviously lower than those in the other three groups (P all <0.05), and the other three groups showed no significances (P>0.05). However, the four groups showed no significant differences in VAS by postoperative 8 h, 12 h, 24 h and 48 h (P all >0.05). The incidences of respiratory depression in C and D groups were markedly higher than those in A and B groups (P all <0.05).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  0.25%~0.375% bupivacaine plus fentanyl 0.4 mg using in epidural analgesia in patients undergoing thoracic surgery can lead to safe and effective analgesic effect.
authors.affiliation: Department of Anesthesiology, Shandong Cancer Hospital & Institute No. 440 Jiyan Road, Jinan 250117, Shandong, China.
authors.forename: Hao
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Department of Anesthesiology, Shandong Cancer Hospital & Institute No. 440 Jiyan Road, Jinan 250117, Shandong, China.
authors.forename: Baosheng
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Department of Anesthesiology, Shandong Cancer Hospital & Institute No. 440 Jiyan Road, Jinan 250117, Shandong, China.
authors.forename: Fumei
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Department of Anesthesiology, Shandong Cancer Hospital & Institute No. 440 Jiyan Road, Jinan 250117, Shandong, China.
authors.forename: Zan
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.affiliation: Department of Anesthesiology, Shandong Cancer Hospital & Institute No. 440 Jiyan Road, Jinan 250117, Shandong, China.
authors.forename: Naibao
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.affiliation: Department of Anesthesiology, Shandong Cancer Hospital & Institute No. 440 Jiyan Road, Jinan 250117, Shandong, China.
authors.forename: Xiuqin
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Department of Anesthesiology, Shandong Cancer Hospital & Institute No. 440 Jiyan Road, Jinan 250117, Shandong, China.
authors.forename: Kaiguo
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Wang
keywords: Epidural analgesia; bupivacaine; patient-controlled analgesia; respiratory depression