Functional Restoration After Abdominal and Pelvic Laparoscopic Surgery: Effect of Perioperative Intravenous Lidocaine

This is a blinded randomized controlled trial in patients undergoing laparoscopic colon surgery. The aim of this study is to assess whether perioperative intravenous lidocaine has an impact on the early post operative physical activity recovery of patients scheduled for laparoscopic colon surgery. Twenty patients will receive thoracic epidural analgesia, twenty patients will receive intravenous lidocaine plus patient-controlled analgesia (PCA) and twenty patients will receive only PCA. Hypothesis: patients receiving perioperative intravenous lidocaine, post operative recovery will be faster and decrease pain intensity, opioid consumption and side effects, length of hospital stay; probably as a result of a significant opioid sparing and attenuated inflammatory response.