| Abstract: | ![]()
According to our results, permanent epidural anaesthesia was significantly superior to systemic opioid treatment in patients with serial rib fractures. The main advantages were not only continuous pain relief despite the fact that the nonepidural control group required more than twice the dosage of morphine derivatives; also, the respiratory and pain-related recovery time was reduced. Another advantage was the selective effect (due to the local application) on respiratory pain and therefore on respiration as a whole. Deep breathing and expectoration were easier, so that the use of respirators and other artificial breathing aids could be avoided or at least reduced in duration in some cases. This makes the method particularly suitable for use in the management of polytraumatized patients. The standard dose was a mixture of 3.3 mg morphine and 37.5 mg bupivacaine (= 1/3 ampoule morphine + 15 ml Carbostesin 0.25%) every 12 h. When morphine was temporary contraindicated (frequently the final diagnosis in the case of an "acute abdomen" delayed the administration of morphine) the use of bupivacaine alone provided a satisfactory result for a certain time (we never observed tachyphylaxis). Additional systemic pain relievers were only necessary when the patient was suffering from pain caused by other injuries beyond the area of effectiveness of the epidural catheter (the only obvious disadvantage of the local application technique). On the other hand, epidural anaesthesia enabled us to treat a patient's lower-leg fracture by interlocking nailing, while adding only 0.01 mg fentanyl (= 2 ml Fentanyl Janssen) and 1.2 mg flunitrazepam (Rohypnol). |
