Is Tunneling Effective in Preventing Failure of Epidural Analgesia? A Randomized Trial

This is a prospective randomized single blinded study in patients planned to undergo general anesthesia and epidural catheter insertion for pain control after abdominal, thoracic and orthopedic surgery. Patients meeting participation criteria will be selected and enrolled sequentially. The study recruitment will be carried out over one year with follow-up for each patient until either the catheter is dislodged or once decided that the patient is to be discontinued from the epidural pain control.