Articles: analgesia.
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Anasthesiol Intensivmed Notfallmed Schmerzther · Nov 1996
Randomized Controlled Trial Comparative Study Clinical Trial[Continuous intra- and postoperative peridural analgesia with combined low dose sufentanil, clonidine and bupivacaine].
The purpose of this study was to investigate whether continuous epidural administration of combined low dose local anaesthetic, opioid and clonidine can provide sufficient postoperative analgesia after major abdominal surgery. ⋯ Epidural administration of drug solutions containing a low dose local anaesthetic, opioid and alpha 2-agonist, provides excellent analgesia after major abdominal surgery. Patients at rest can be treated very effectively with both a combination of only two or with all of the tested drugs. On exercise the mixture containing all analgesics was more efficient than the solutions with only two of the tested drugs. Severe side effects such as respiratory depression or cardiovascular instability were not seen.
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Sex differences in human responses to nociceptive stimuli and painful pathological conditions have generally indicated that women report higher pain levels or exhibit less tolerance than men for given stimulus intensities (reviewed in ref. 1 and 2). However, studies have not evaluated sex differences in analgesic responses. We recently reported that the opioid agonist-antagonist pentazocine, which acts predominantly at kappa-receptors, produced significantly better postoperative analgesia in females than in males in patients who underwent surgery for the removal of their third molars (wisdom teeth). ⋯ In order to determine whether there are sex differences associated with kappa-opioid agonism, the analgesic efficacy of two other predominantly kappa-opioid analgesics, nalbuphine and butorphanol; was compared in males and females who underwent surgery for the removal of third molar teeth. We found that both nalbuphine and butorphanol produced significantly greater analgesia in females as compared with males. Considering our earlier findings, we conclude that kappa-opioid analgesia is greater in females than in males, probably reflecting a difference in kappa-opioid-activated endogenous pain modulating circuits.
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Regional anesthesia · Nov 1996
Case ReportsEssential thrombocythemia and epidural analgesia in the parturient. Does thromboelastography help?
It is often considered that essential thrombocythemia contraindicates placement of an epidural catheter because of the danger of epidural hematoma. Thromboelastography offers a possible means of determining the appropriateness of epidural analgesia in a patient with this disorder. ⋯ Thromboelastography may be a useful diagnostic test in determining the suitability of regional techniques for labor analgesia in parturients with essential thrombocythemia. However, success in one patient does not prove the general safety of this approach.