Articles: nerve-block.
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Anesthesia and analgesia · Feb 1982
Randomized Controlled Trial Comparative Study Clinical TrialEpidural morphine for postoperative pain relief: a comparative study with intramuscular narcotic and intercostal nerve block.
The relatively new technique of epidural morphine analgesia was compared with two well established method of pain relief in 90 patients undergoing gallbladder surgery and divided randomly into three groups of 30 patients each. The first group received intramuscular narcotic analgesic ketobemidone, the second group was given 0.5% bupivacaine-epinephrine intercostal nerve block, and the third group received a single dose of 4 mg of epidural morphine for postoperative pain relief. The mean duration of analgesia after ketobemidone was 5.5 hours, and after intercostal block 11 hours. ⋯ Delayed respiratory depression was not encountered after epidural morphine. It is concluded that a single dose of 4 mg of epidural morphine provides excellent regional analgesia of long duration without drowsiness or circulatory of respiratory depression thus facilitating early ambulation. The technique is superior to more common methods of pain relief after gallbladder surgery, e.g., intercostal nerve block and intramuscular narcotics.