Regional anesthesia
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Regional anesthesia · Jul 1989
Randomized Controlled Trial Comparative Study Clinical TrialThe effect of continuous epidural analgesia with sufentanil and bupivacaine during and after thoracic surgery on the plasma cortisol concentration and pain relief.
The effect of continuous epidural analgesia with bupivacaine 0.125% and sufentanil 0.83 micrograms.ml-1 on the plasma cortisol concentration and postoperative pain relief was compared with that of intermittent intravenous peroperative and on-demand intramuscular postoperative analgesia with nicomorphine 0.2 mg.kg-1. The study was performed on two groups of ten patients for three consecutive days after thoracic surgery. In the epidural group, a better quality of analgesia was found as measured with the Inverse Linear Analgesia Scale (ILAS) (1 = severe pain, 10 = no pain) than in the group that received intramuscular analgesia. ⋯ L-1 on day 1. The measured mean plasma cortisol concentration was found to exceed normal limits (150-700 nmol. L-1) only in the systemic group and only on day 1.