EPIDURAL MORPHINE ANALGESIA - POSTOPERATIVE PERIOD

  • 1 January 1981
    • journal article
    • research article
    • Vol. 30  (2) , 77-82
Abstract
Patients (50) after abdominal surgery received peridural morphine for postoperative pain relief. At the end of operation, 2-3 mg morphine in 10-15 ml 0.9% saline were injected peridurally by a catheter, which was placed preoperatively. The injection was followed by a dissociated analgesia. Diffuse pain and wound pain were diminished. Pin prick and temperature were still perceived. Analgesia started within 2-5 min after injection and lasted 14 in the mean (range 1-49 h). The degree of analgesia was determined by a visual analog scoring system. The patients reported a marked pain relief. A new dose of 2 mg morphine was given on demand, when the patients felt pain again. This procedure was continued until the 2nd postoperative day. The overall amount of morphine by peridural application was 8 mg within 3 days. There were no signs of respiratory depression either clinically or by blood gas analysis. There were no severe side effects. The advantages of epidural morphine analgesia are: low dose, long duration, lack of sedation and motor block, lack of respiratory depression, tachyphylaxia and sympathetic block. No pneumonia were seen in the epidural morphine group; 4 cases of pneumonia were seen in the control group (n50) with conventional analgesics.

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