• Shi-qing Lin, Jian-hong Ye, Ding-xiu He, Fan Yang, Wen-qi Huang, and Lai-bao Sun.
• Department of Anesthesiology, First Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou 510080, China. colour47@163.com
• Nan Fang Yi Ke Da Xue Xue Bao. 2007 Jul 1; 27 (7): 1086-8.

ObjectiveTo analyze the factors leading to prescheduled analgesic withdrawal in patients with postoperative epidural analgesia.MethodsA retrospective study of 4876 patients with postoperative epidural analgesia was conducted and the effect of analgesia and incidence of prescheduled analgesic withdrawal were recorded. The factors precipitating the occurrences of analgesic withdrawal and complications were analyzed.ResultsEarly analgesic withdrawal occurred in 113 cases (2.3%), among which 74 (0.5%) were due to factors irrelevant to analgesic complications. Analgesia-related complications occurred in 578 patients, but only 39 (0.7%) of them needed discontinuation of the analgesics.ConclusionPrescheduled analgesic withdrawal is predominantly due to technical inadequacies rather than complications arising from the analgesics, and improvement of the operation skills for postoperative analgesia may reduce early analgesia discontinuation and enhance the patients' satisfaction.

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