Korean J Anesthesiol.  1999 Oct;37(4):668-674. 10.4097/kjae.1999.37.4.668.

Can Different Analgesic Methods Affect Open Thoracotomy Outcomes?

• Lee SR
• Kang HM
• Han TH

• KMID: 2091470
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.4097/kjae.1999.37.4.668

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Due to severe pain after open thoracotmy, the postoperative pain control is essential to decrease pulmonary complications, and improve a patient's recovery. This study compared the surgical outcome of patients who had undergone open thoracotomy, and been managed with two different analgesic methods.
METHODS
A retrospective chart review was carried out regarding 81 patients who had undergone open thoracotomy due to lung cancer. 41 of these patients has received continuous thoracic epidural analgesia with 0.1% bupivacaine and 0.3 mg/ml morphine at a rate of 2 ml/hr for postthoracotomy pain control (CTEA group). The remaining 40 patients has received intravenous patient-controlled analgesia with 1% meperidine (IV-PCA group). We compared the effects of the postoperative pain control in the two groups and the outcomes, including the pulmonary complications and durations of hospital stay.
RESULTS
There were no significant differences in demographic data between the two groups. Supplemental analgesic requirements and postoperative pulmonary complications were significantly lower in the CTEA group than in the IV-PCA group. There were no significant statistical differences between the two groups in the durations of their hospital stay.
CONCLUSIONS
We conclude that the continuous thoracic epidural infusion provided better postthoracotomy analgesia and surgical outcomes than intravenous patient controlled analgesia.

Keyword

Analgesia, intravenous patient-controlled, epidural; Outcome, postoperative; Pain, postoperative

MeSH Terms

Analgesia
Analgesia, Epidural
Analgesia, Patient-Controlled
Bupivacaine
Humans
Length of Stay
Lung Neoplasms
Meperidine
Morphine
Pain, Postoperative
Retrospective Studies
Thoracotomy*
Bupivacaine
Meperidine
Morphine