Korean J Anesthesiol.  1996 Sep;31(3):386-390. 10.4097/kjae.1996.31.3.386.

The Effects of Epidural Bupivacaine and Morphine Mixture on Bowel Motility after Upper Abdominal Surgery

• Lee JN
• Jo EH
• Cho IC
• Park YC

• KMID: 2239075
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.4097/kjae.1996.31.3.386

Abstract

BACKGROUND: The stress of operation inhibits bowel motility. The blockade of efferent sympathetic nerve is helpful to recovery of bowel motility. So we tried to examine that the extent of sympathetic blockade by alterations of bupivacaine infusion rate affected the recovery of bowel motility.
METHODS
Group 1 (N = 25) received postoperative meperidine intramuscular injection on demand as a control group, group 2 (N = 25) received postoperative epidural 0.125% bupivacaine 100 ml plus morphine 10mg by infusion pump, 1 ml/hour, for 4days, group 3 (N = 25) received 0.125% bupivacaine 400 ml plus morphine 10mg by infusion pump, 4 ml/hour, for 4days. The Group 2 and 3 received additional morphine 2mg in 0.2% bupivacaine 10 ml epidurally as a single bolus when the peritoneum was closed. The time interval from termination of operation to the first passage of flatus was estimated.
RESULTS
In group 1, bowel motility was regained at 92+/-23 hours, group 2 ; 90+/-19 hours and group 3 ; 91+/-19 hours. All values are not significantly different among the groups (p>0.05).
CONCLUSIONS
The alteration of epidural bupivacaine and morphine infusion rate did not affect the recovery of postoperative bowel motility.

Keyword

Anesthetic technique epidural anesthesia; Anesthetics; local bupivacaine; Analgesics morphine; Gastrointestinal tract motility

MeSH Terms

Anesthetics
Bupivacaine*
Flatulence
Infusion Pumps
Injections, Intramuscular
Meperidine
Morphine*
Peritoneum
Anesthetics
Bupivacaine
Meperidine
Morphine