Efficacy of the Epidural Buprenorphine for Postoperative Pain Control after Upper Abdominal Surgery

Shin, Kamjin; Choe, Huhn; Han, Youngjin; Kim, Dongchn; Song, Hesun

Abstract

The use of buprenorphine by epidural route in the prevention of postoperative pain has been controversial. High lipid solubility of buprenorphine caused the same parenteral/epidural analgesic dose ratio, and the analgesic effect of epidural buprenorphine possibly due to systemic absorption, which revealed no advantages of epidural administration against parenteral injection. On the contrary, epidural buprenorphine had longer duration of action and fewer side ef fects than parenteral buprenorphine, which advocated the epidural use of buprenorphine. We studied the efficacy of epidural buprenorphine by comparing epidural buprenorphine with epidural morphine in terms of latency and the duration of analgesic action, and the incidence of side effects. 0.15mg and 0.3mg of epidural buprenorphine had shorter latency than 2mg of morphine. 0.3 mg of buprenorphine had longer duration of action than 4 mg of morphine. The incidence of nausea and vomiting were slightely higher in buprenorphine group than in morphine group. Voiding difficulty and pruritus were little in buprenorphine group, while the incidence of somnolence was markedly higher in buprenorphine group. Form our results we con-clude that epidural buprenorphine may be useful in the treatment of postoperative pain, and but recognize both advantages and disadvantages as compared epidural morphine.