Anesthesiology
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Comment Letter Biography Historical Article
Preemptive analgesia or anoci-association.
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Biography Historical Article
Henry Ruth: pioneer of modern anesthesiology.
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Randomized Controlled Trial Comparative Study Clinical Trial
Morphine and hydromorphone epidural analgesia. A prospective, randomized comparison.
Because evidence from uncontrolled, unblinded studies suggested fewer side effects from epidural hydromorphone than from epidural morphine, we employed a randomized, blinded study design to compare the side effects of lumbar epidural morphine and hydromorphone in 55 adult, non-obstetric patients undergoing major surgical procedures. A bolus dose of epidural study drug was given at least 1 h prior to the conclusion of surgery, followed by a continuous infusion of the same drug for two postoperative days. Infusions were titrated to patient comfort. ⋯ Prevalence of pruritus, however, differed significantly on postoperative day 1, with moderate to severe pruritus reported by 44.4% of patients in the morphine group versus 11.5% in the hydromorphone group (P < .01). On post-operative day 2, reports of pruritus by patients receiving morphine remained higher than those among the hydromorphone-treated subjects, although this difference was no longer statistically significant (32% vs. 16.7%, P = .18). We conclude that lumbar epidural morphine and hydromorphone afford comparable analgesia, but the occurrence of moderate to severe pruritus on the first postoperative day is reduced by the use of hydromorphone.
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Randomized Controlled Trial Comparative Study Clinical Trial
Comparison of postoperative analgesic effects of intraarticular bupivacaine and morphine following arthroscopic knee surgery.
Recent studies have shown that, in the presence of inflammation, the local administration of opioids results in analgesia. The analgesic efficacy of local anesthetics and morphine administered intraarticularly was compared in patients undergoing arthroscopic knee surgery under epidural anesthesia. We compared postoperative pain scores (VAS) and opioid requirements among 47 patients receiving, in a randomized, double-blinded fashion, one of three intraarticular medications (20 ml): normal saline with 100 micrograms epinephrine (group 1, n = 16); 0.25% bupivacaine with 100 micrograms epinephrine (group 2, n = 15); and 3 mg morphine sulfate and 100 micrograms epinephrine in normal saline (group 3, n = 16). ⋯ Subsequent VAS scores were not significantly different in the three groups. While no patient in group 2 requested analgesics during the first postoperative hour, nine patients in group 3 required systemic analgesics (P < .01). We conclude that no evidence for a peripheral opiate-receptor mediated analgesia could be demonstrated in patients undergoing arthroscopic knee surgery under epidural anesthesia.