Efficacy of Patient Controlled Epidural Anesthesia Versus Continuous Epidural Analgesia for Post-thoracotomy Pain

Postoperative thoracotomy pain is normally managed with an epidural catheter and continuous epidural analgesia (CEA). However, for some surgical procedures, patient controlled epidural anesthesia (PCEA) is more effective but little research has compared the two methods following thoracotomy. The current randomized, prospective clinical investigation did just this. Following institutional ethics approval 52 patients scheduled for thoracotomy were recruited for this prospective, randomized, unblinded study. A thoracic epidural catheter was sited preoperatively. Postoperatively all patients were titrated on continuous epidural infusions (hydromorphone 10 mcg/mL + bupivacaine 1 mg/mL) until pain scores were stable at ≤3 on a numeric rating scale (NRS). Then they were allocated to their preoperatively determined randomization (either remained on continuous epidural infusion or they were switched to receive 2/3 of the stabilized background dose via continuous epidural infusion with the option to self-administer the remaining 1/3rd of the dose via PCEA. Participants remained on their allocated analgesic regimens for 48 hours postoperatively. The primary outcome was consumption of local anaesthetics/opioids. The secondary outcomes were worst pain and pain while coughing (0-10 NRS).