J Korean Pain Soc.  2000 Nov;13(2):208-212.

Comparative Study of Postoperative Pain in Lower and Upper Abdominal Surgery Using Patient-Controlled Analgesia

• Ko SH
• Kim DC
• Lee JR
• Han YJ
• Choe H

Abstract

BACKGROUND: We studied 250 patients who received intravenous patient-controlled analgesia (PCA) after lower and upper abdominal surgery to evaluate pain relief, analgesic consumption, patient's mood and side effects.
METHODS
We made total 60 ml of analgesic mixture with morphine 60 mg, ketorolac 180 mg, droperidol 5 mg and normal saline. Loading and bolus dose and lockout interval were 0.05 ml/kg, 1.0 ml and 7 min, respectively. The duration of operation and the length of skin incision were recorded. Visual analog scale (VAS) pain and mood scores, cumulative analgesic consumption, and incidence of side effect were evaluated.
RESULTS
In the upper abdominal surgery group (Group 2), the duration of operation and length of skin incision were longer than Group 1. The average postoperative pain scores at 6, 24, and 48 hours in lower (Group 1) vs upper (Group 2) abdominal surgery were 4.3+/-2.1 vs 4.7+/-2.4, 3.3+/-1.9 vs 4.3+/-2.8, and 2.4+/-2.7 vs 3.2+/-2.1, respectively. There were no significant differences in the cumulative analgesic consumption and number of analgesic demands and at 6, 24, 48 hours after the operation between two groups. Group 2 patients required significantly longer pain control using PCA as compared to Group 1 patients. There were no significant differences in the incidence of side effects between the two groups.
CONCLUSIONS
There was little difference in postoperative pain after lower and upper abdominal surgery.

Keyword

Analgesia patient-controlled. Pain postoperative. Surgery upper abdominal; lower abdominal

MeSH Terms

Analgesia, Patient-Controlled*
Droperidol
Humans
Incidence
Ketorolac
Morphine
Pain, Postoperative*
Passive Cutaneous Anaphylaxis
Skin
Visual Analog Scale
Droperidol
Ketorolac
Morphine