Korean J Anesthesiol.  1991 Apr;24(2):389-394. 10.4097/kjae.1991.24.2.389.

Epidural Nalbuphine Hydrochloride for Postoperative Pain Relief

• Ham BM
• Lee SC

• KMID: 1933609
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.4097/kjae.1991.24.2.389

Abstract

A number of recent reports have described the usefulness of the epidural injection of narcotics for the relief of postoperative pain. But the epidural use of narcotic agonist-antagonist, nalbuphine hydrochloride, has not been reported. To study the effect of epidural nalbuphine hydrochloride for postoperative pain relief, we divided 73 patients into 5 groups randomly: 3 mg nalbuphine hydrochloride in 10 ml saline (group 1, n=9); 4 mg nalbuphine hydrochloride in 10 ml saline (group 2, n=14); 5 mg nalbuphine hydrochloride in 10 ml saline (group 3, n=21); 3 mg morphine in 10 ml saline (group 4, n=16); 4 mg morphine in 10 ml saline (group 5, n=13). The results were as follows 1) The onset time of analgesic effect were average 15~20 minitues in all groups 2) The durations of analgesia of epidural nalbuphine groups were (average; 5~7 hours) significantly shorter than morphine groups (average; 31~32 hours). 3) The degree of analgesia were same between 5 groups 4) The complications were nausea, vomiting and pruritus in all groups, but the frequency of pruritus in morphine groups was more than nalbuphine groups (p<0.05). 5) Urinary retention was observed only in morphine groups. In conclusion, the result of our study suggests that nalbuphine hydrochloride be better agent than morphine in terms of complication for postoperative pain relief but the duration of action is shorter than morphine, when injected epidurally.

MeSH Terms

Analgesia
Humans
Injections, Epidural
Morphine
Nalbuphine*
Narcotics
Nausea
Pain, Postoperative*
Pruritus
Urinary Retention
Vomiting
Morphine
Nalbuphine
Narcotics