Epidural vs. Wound Catheter Following Liver Resection

Good postoperative pain control after any major surgery allows early mobilization, minimises postoperative complications and reduces patient distress. Multiple different methods of delivering analgesia have been described. This study aims to compare postoperative pain control between patients with epidural analgesia versus the combination of continuous infiltration of local anaesthetic with wound catheters, TAP block and IV PCA with opiate analgesia following open liver resection. The investigators expect that pain control will be similar between the two groups but that the utilization of wound catheters will confer benefit due to the lack of systemic side effects associated with epidural analgesia