Nurse anesthesia
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Randomized Controlled Trial Clinical Trial
Efficacy of continuous epidural analgesia and the implications for patient care in the early postoperative phase.
Management of postoperative pain has been shown to be inadequately controlled, and, in fact, can have significant deleterious effects on a patient's early postoperative recovery. Continuous epidural analgesia has recently been used to control postoperative pain. This mode of analgesia controls postoperative pain without the delays inherent in the PRN administration of systemic narcotics. ⋯ The results of this study showed that the level of pain relief and recovery of postoperative function was superior to that provided by the more widely used (PRN) systemic administration of narcotics. With the exception of the report of back pain by patients receiving the normal saline epidural solution, complications did not occur in a significantly greater proportion when using the epidural route. Although some nursing care problems were identified, patients who received epidural analgesia were able to be cared for on general care units with no adverse effects reported.