• B K Stanley, M J Noble, C Gilliland, J W Weigel, W K Mebust, and M S Austenfeld.
• Department of Urology, University of Kansas Medical Center, Kansas City.
• J. Urol. 1993 Nov 1;150(5 Pt 1):1434-6.

AbstractPatient-controlled analgesia has become standard practice after major abdominal operations. The benefits of patient-controlled analgesia have been well documented. However, its possible effect of prolonging postoperative ileus has not been well examined. To determine if patient-controlled analgesia prolongs postoperative ileus when compared to conventional intramuscular narcotics, a retrospective review of length of postoperative ileus in 98 consecutive patients (62 using patient-controlled analgesia and 36 using intramuscular narcotics) undergoing bilateral pelvic lymphadenectomy and radical retropubic prostatectomy was done. The patients receiving patient-controlled analgesia resolved the postoperative ileus an average of 1.0 day later than the intramuscular injection group (5.2 days versus 4.2 days p < 0.0001). Overall hospital stay was not significantly affected. Our results show that patient-controlled analgesia use prolongs postoperative ileus.

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