• S Mogensen, L Berglund, and M Eriksson.
• Section of Anaesthesiology and Intensive Care, Department of Surgical Sciences, Uppsala University, Uppsala University Hospital, Uppsala, Sweden.
• Acta Anaesthesiol Scand. 2014 Feb 1;58(2):214-8.

BackgroundInsertion of an epidural catheter for pain relief is frequently used in anaesthetic practice. Little is known regarding patients' expected vs. experienced pain and discomfort due to the epidural block procedure. The purpose of this study was to investigate the expected and experienced pain, respectively, associated with the epidural procedure in patients undergoing major abdominal surgery.MethodsThirty adult, unselected patients scheduled for elective major abdominal surgery were included in this study, which was approved by the ethics committee. Pre-operative insertion of an epidural catheter had to be a part of the anaesthetic routine procedure. Immediately before the epidural procedure, the patients were asked to grade the pain they expected from the procedure on an 11-point numeric rating system scale, ranging from 0 to 10, where '0' is no pain and '10' is worst imaginable pain. When the procedure had been carried out, the patients were once again asked to grade how much pain they had experienced.ResultsThe median expected pain as a result of the epidural procedure was 5.0. Median experienced pain was 2.0. The median difference between the expected and experienced pain was -3.0 (P < 0.0001). The only patient who expected less pain than she subsequently experienced had a paraesthetic sensation. Gender, age, or previous experience from central neuraxial block did not significantly affect neither expected nor experienced pain.ConclusionsPatients expect significantly more pain than they experience from receiving an epidural block.© 2013 The Acta Anaesthesiologica Scandinavica Foundation. Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

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