Articles: analgesia.
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Comparative Study Clinical Trial Controlled Clinical Trial
[Analgesia in breast surgery with interpleural bupivacaine].
A control group of 15 patients undergoing breast surgery was given general anesthesia. In 15 other patients an interpleural block with 0.4 ml/kg bupivacaine, 0.5%, was performed 20 minutes before induction of general anesthesia for pre-emptive analgesia. This was extended further by continuous administration of bupivacaine 0.25%, 0.125 ml/kg/hr by automatic infusion pump, with supplements of opiates for postoperative pain management. The combined technique was associated with significantly reduced perioperative opiate requirement with better emergence from anesthesia, fewer side effects, a prolonged pain-free period, and overall better quality of postoperative recovery.
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Randomized Controlled Trial Comparative Study Clinical Trial
Randomised trial of epidural bupivacaine and morphine in prevention of stump and phantom pain in lower-limb amputation.
Epidural analgesia before limb amputation is commonly used to reduce postamputation pain. But there have been no controlled studies with large numbers of patients to prove such a pre-emptive effect. We investigated whether postamputation stump and phantom pain in the first year is reduced by preoperative epidural blockade with bupivacaine and morphine. ⋯ Perioperative epidural blockade started a median of 18 h (15-20.3) before the amputation and continued into the postoperative period does not prevent phantom or stump pain.
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We audited and analysed the adverse effects and safety of postoperative pain management on 2509 consecutive patients under care of the Acute Pain Service at a tertiary referral teaching hospital over a 32-month period. Our standard respiratory monitoring consisted of continuous pulse oximetry, hourly respiratory rate counting, sedation scoring and intermittent arterial blood gas sampling. This protocol was reliable and detected six episodes of bradypnoea, 13 of hypercapnia and 23 of oxygen desaturation occurring in 39 patients (1.8% of all spontaneously breathing patients). ⋯ Postoperative nausea and vomiting decreased analgesic efficacy by discouraging the use of patient-controlled analgesia and was regarded as equally distressing as pain. Other side-effects included: pruritus in 182 patients; dizziness in 333 and lower limb weakness in 73 (21.2% of patients receiving epidural local anaesthetics). It is concluded that a standard monitoring and management protocol, an experienced nursing team and reliable Acute Pain Service coverage is mandatory for the safe use of modern analgesic techniques.