Obesity surgery
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Randomized Controlled Trial
A randomized trial of bupivicaine pain pumps to eliminate the need for patient controlled analgesia pumps in primary laparoscopic Roux-en-Y gastric bypass.
The use of a bupivicaine pain pump has previously been reported to lower costs to hospitals, while providing similar pain relief to opioid-based patient controlled analgesia (PCA) pumps. However, these benefits have not been investigated in laparoscopic bariatric surgery. ⋯ The use of a bupivicaine pain pump offers the opportunity to dramatically reduce the use of opioids postoperatively in all bariatric patients by eliminating PCA. This change could potentially reduce the incidence of respiratory failure from oversedation, while offering the same levels of pain control.