Efficacy of thoracic epidural analgesia following laparoscopic cholecystectomy

This study was undertaken to determine whether epidural analgesia has any benefit for post-operative pain relief in patients undergoing laparoscopic cholecystectomy. Patients were randomly assigned to receive post-operative epidural analgesia with a morphine–bupivacaine combination (Group A, n=22) or placebo (saline) (Group B, n=22). The same standard general anaesthetic technique, which consists of nitrous oxide and isoflurane in oxygen was used. Analgesia was assessed using visual analogue pain scores (0–10 cm). The evaluation was carried out 24 and 48 h post-operatively. At 24 h after anaesthesia, pain scores in Group A (2.3±1.2) were lower than those in Group B (4.4±1.5) ( P<0.05). However, at 48 h post-operatively, no difference in scores was observed between the two groups. In conclusion, epidural analgesia with a morphine–bupivacaine combination improves pain relief during the first 24 h following laparoscopic cholecystectomy.