• The Korean Journal of Pain
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• v.2 no.2
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• pp.189-193
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• 1989

The analgesic effects of epidural morphine were evaluated on various types of cancer-related pain in forty-eight adult patients. Epidural morphine injections were given via an epidural catheter introduced to an epidural level corresponding to the pain area. Pain relief was classified as excellent, fair, or poor by subjective scoring and by the subsequent need for systemic analgesics. Thirty-two patients of all the patients became pain-free. In sixteen patients, pain relief was complete only for one or two of various types of pain with a certain dose of epidural morphine, The best result was obtained when the pain was continuous and originated from deep somatic structures. Based on the results, the ranking order of different types of cancer pain with regard to their susceptibility to epidural morphine was as follows: 1) Continuous somatic pain 2) Continuous visceral pain 3) Intermittent somatic pain 4) Intermittent visceral pain The differential effects of epidural morphine on cancer-related pain may suggest that various types of noxious stimuli involve different kinds of opioid receptors which differ in affinity to morphine, and that there are some pain-mediating systems which function independently of opioid mechanisms.

• The Korean Journal of Pain
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.188-192
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• 1994

Recently, epidural morphine has been administrated to decrease patients' systemic stress responses such as: suffers, endocrine responses and impairment of pulmonary function, etc. Epidural morphine provided excellent analgesic effect, but incomplete sensory blockade as compared to epidural local anesthetics, which has sympathetic blockade effect and tachyphylaxis. Therefore, the authors surmised that low dose bupivacaine on low dose epidural morphine improved postoperative pain with greater sensory analgesia than epidural morphine alone. The effect of low dose bupivacaine on epidural morphine analgesia for postoperative pain was evaluated in seventy patients. They were physical status I-III by ASA classification. Patients were randomly divided into 2 groups and they were administrated morphine 2.5 mg only (group I), morphine 2.5 mg plus 0.125% bupivacaine (group II) through epidural catheter 1 hour before the end of the operation. During postoperative second days, their analgesic effects were evaluated by visual analogue scale (0-10). Side effects were also evaluated. The results were as follows, 1) On the day of the operation, VAS score showed significant differences between two groups (morphine group $3.20{\pm}0.16$, morphine plus bupivacaine group $2.77{\pm}0.08$; p < 0.05). 2) On the postoperative and second day, there were no statistical differences between the groups according to VAS score. 3) The incidence of pruritus, nausea, and vomiting were no differences in both groups. 4) None of the patients showed objective sedation or a low respiratory rate (< 10 bpm). We concluded that epidural administration of low dose bupivacaine on the epidural morphine analgesia was an effective method to decrease postoperative pain with little change in frequencies of side effects compared to epidural morphine alone.

• The Korean Journal of Pain
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.380-384
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• 1996

Background: To determine the effectiveness of continuous epidural infusion of droperidol, combined with epidural morphine, in reducing nausea or vomiting associated with epidural morphine and minimizing the side effects of droperidol, 48 patients undergoing elective thoracic surgery were randomly assigned to one of two study groups. Methods: Patients received continuous infusion of epidural morphine(6.0 mg/day) following a bolus loading dose of 3.0 mg(Group A), or epidural mixture of morphine(6.0 mg/day) plus droperidol(5.0 mg/day) following a bolus loading dose(morphine 3.0mg, droperidol 1.5 mg)(Group B). For the first 48 postoperative hours, the incidence of nausea or vomiting, the need for antiemetic therapy, level of sedation, and adverse effects associated with droperidol were evaluated. Results: The incidence of nausea or vomiting and the number of patients who required antiemetic therapy were significantly less in Group B than in Group A(P<0.05). There were no significant differences between groups with regard to the adverse effects associated with droperidol such as mental depression, respiratory depression and abnormal movements(P=NS). Conclusion: We conclude that simultaneous titration of morphine and droperidol via epidural continuous infusion following epidural bolus injection of the mixture reduces nausea or vomiting associated with epidural morphine while it prevents the side effects of droperidol.

• The Korean Journal of Pain
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.47-53
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• 1998

Background: Epidural coadministration of opioids and local anesthetics has provided excellent analgesia during postoperative period. However, it is usually associated with the occurance of many side effects which were induced by epidural morphine. Low dose of intravenous naloxone has been known to reduce morphine-induced side effects without reversing analgesia, but the effect of epidural naloxone has not been defined in human study. Therefore we evaluated side effects and analgesia when naloxone was administered via epidural route. Methods: Eighty patients having epiduro-general anesthesia for hysterectomy were randomly assigned to one of four study groups. As a mean of postoperative pain control, all received 2 mg of epidural morphine bolusly at 1 hr before the end of surgery and continuous epidural infusion was started by Two-day Infusor containing morphine 4 mg in 0.125% bupivacaine 100 ml with either none of naloxone(Group 1, n=20), 2 ug/kg/day of naloxone(Group 2, n=20), 3 ug/kg/day of naloxone(Group 3, n=20) or 4 ug/kg/day of naloxone(Group 4, n=20). Study endpoints included visual analog scales(VAS) for pain, severity of nausea, itching, somnolence and respiratory depression. They were assessed at 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, and 48 hr postoperatively. Results: VAS for pain showed significant difference in Group 4 compared with Group 1 at all of the evaluation time. Itching score decreased significantly in Group 3 and 4 after 8 hr postoperatively and nausea score decreased significantly in Group 3 after 4 hr postoperatively. Alertness score decreased significantly in Group 3 and 4 especially in early postoperative period. Conclusion: This study suggests that epidural naloxone reduce morphine-induced side effects in dose-dependent fashion without reversal of the analgesic effect of epidural morphine.

• The Korean Journal of Pain
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.191-195
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• 1997

Backgound: The present study was undertaken to determine whether fentanyl or bupivacaine is a better adjuvant to epidural morphine with respect to postoperative analgesic use and with fewer incidence of side effects. Methods: We evaluated the clinical effects in 62 patients having cesarean section, divided in 3groups randomly. Group I(n=19) was received epidural morphine 4 mg, group II(n=22) was received epidural morphine 2 mg plus fentanyl 50 ${\mu}g$ and group III(n=21) was received morphine 2 mg plus 0.25% bupivacaine 10 ml epidurally. We measured the first request time of analgesic for postoperative pain, the number of supplemental analgesics within 24 hours and the incidence of side effects postoperatively. Results: The first request time of analgesic for postoperative pain was significantly shorter in group III than in group I and II. The analgesic use in the first 24 hours was significantly more in group III than in group I and II. The side effects were significantly fewer incidence in group II than in group I and III. Conclusions: In conclusion, the combined use of epidural morphine and fentanyl provided better analgesia than the combined of epidural morphine and bupivacaine.

• The Korean Journal of Pain
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.86-90
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• 1998

Background: There are no controlled studies assessing the effect of metoclopramide and droperidol administered epidurally for the prevention of nausea and vomiting associated with epidural morphine. This study was undertaken to compare the effectiveness of continuous epidural metoclopramide and droperidol in reducing nausea and vomiting associated with epidural morphine. Methods: Ninty patients undergoing elective gynecologic surgery were randomly assigned to one of three study groups; Group A(n=30) patients received continuous infusion of epidural morphine(6.0 mg/day) following a bolus loading dose of 3.0 mg; Group B(n=30), epidural mixture of morphine and droperidol(5.0 mg/day) following a bolus loading dose(morphine 3.0 mg, droperidol 1.5 mg); Group C, (n=30), epidural mixture of morphine and metoclopramide(20 mg/day) following a bolus loading dose(morphine 3.0 mg, metoclopramide 10 mg). For the 24 postoperative hours, the incidence of nausea and vomiting, degree of pain, level of sedation and other adverse effects were evaluated. Results: Incidence of nausea and vomiting, and number of patients who required antiemetic therapy were significantly less in Group B and C than in Group A(P<0.05). Patients in Group A and C were less sedated than those in Group B. Conclusions: We conclude metoclopramide is more effective than droperidol for postoperative nausea and vomiting due to its lower of sedative effect.

• The Korean Journal of Pain
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• v.6 no.2
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• pp.213-219
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• 1993

The use of buprenorphine by epidural route in the prevention of postoperative pain has been controversial. High lipid solubility of buprenorphine caused the same parenteral/epidural analgesic dose ratio, and the analgesic effect of epidural buprenorphine possibly due to systemic absorption, which revealed no advantages of epidural administration against parenteral injection. On the contrary, epidural buprenorphine had longer duration of action and fewer side effects than parenteral buprenorphine, which advocated the epidural use of buprenorphine. We studied the efficacy of epidural buprenorphine by comparing epidural buprenorphine with epidural morphine in terms of latency and the duration of analgesic action, and the incidence of side effects. 0.15mg and 0.3mg of epidural buprenorphine had shorter latency than 2mg of morphine. 0.3 mg of buprenorphine had longer duration of action than 4 mg of morphine. The incidence of nausea and vomiting were slightely higher in buprenorphine group than in morphine group. Voiding difficulty and pruritus were little in buprenorphine group, while the incidence of somnolence was markedly higher in buprenorphine group. Form our results we conclude that epidural buprenorphine may be useful in the treatment of postoperative pain, and but recognize both advantages and disadvantages as compared epidural morphine.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.303-307
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• 1993

Postoperative pain relief and the side effects of epidurally injected morphine were investigated in 10 patients who received thoracotomy. Epidural morphine injection was given via an epidural catheter after thoracotomy. The pain score[VAS] and repiratory rate were decreased and the SaO2, tidal volume and vital capacity were increased significantly after epidural morphine injection. The analgesia of epidural morphine lasted for 13 hours with average. The side effects of epidural morphine were few and mild, but urinary retention was in 10%[1/10] of total patients.

• The Korean Journal of Pain
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.385-389
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• 1996

Background: Nowadays, epidural morphine is commonly used in postoperative pain control. But epidural morphine may produce some side-effects, e.g. pruritus, nausea, vomiting, urinary retention and respiratory depression. Especially, pruritus is the most common complaint in pain-controlled patients by epidural morphine. So we evaluated whether addition of epidural butorphanol affects the degree of pruritus and pain score in pain controlled patients who by epidural morphine after hysterectomy. Methods: Group 1(N=15) received postoperative epidural 0.1% bupivacaine 100ml plus morphine 10 mg, group 2(N=15) received the mixture of butorphanol 2 mg with same regime as in group 1, group 3(N=15) received the mixture of butorphanol 4 mg with same regime as in group 1. All of the three groups received these solutions by infusion pump, 1 ml/hour, for postoperative 4 days. all groups received additional morphine 1.2 mg in 0.2% bupivacaine 6ml epidurally when the peritoneum was closed under general anesthesia. The severity of pain, pruritus, nausea and vomiting was estimated by 10 cm VAS(visual analogue scale) and somnolence by positive or negative during postoperative 4 days. Results: Severity of pruritus, but not nausea and vomiting was decreased in group 2 and 3 compared with group 1(p<0.05). Pain score was increased in group 3 at postoperative day(POD) 0 and 2 compared with group 1(p<0.05). Incidence of somnolence in group 1, 2 and 3 were $2.7{\pm}0.7,\;5.3{\pm}0.7$ and $10.0{\pm}1.0$ respectively. Conclusion: These results suggest that butorphanol reduce the degree of pruritus, the most common side effect of morphine, but increase the incidence of somnolence.

• The Korean Journal of Pain
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• v.2 no.2
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• pp.194-197
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• 1989

Epidural morphine provides excellent analgesia for the management of postoperative pain, but nausea and vomiting are a commonly reported side effect. Scopolamine, a belladona alkaloid, is an effective antiemetic when nausea is induced by morphine. Transdermal scopolamine patches have the advantage of delivering a constant low dosage of the drug over a prolonged period. To evaluate the efficacy of prophylacitic transdermal scopolamine in reducing nausea or vomiting associated with postoperative epidural morphine analgesia, I studied 60 healthy adult patients. The patients were divided into 3 groups, each group consisting of 20 patients. Group 1; no scopolamine for control Group 2; transdermal scopolamine placebo patch Group 3; transdermal scopolamine patch All patients were anesthetized by epidural injection of 2% lidocaine 15 ml and 0.5% bupivacaine 10 ml with morphine 4 mg. A Comparison with the control group, the placebo group, and Group 3, indicated, that the transdermal scopolamine reduced the incidence of nausea or vomiting associated with postoperative epidural morphine analgesia (group 1; 35%, group 2; 25%, group 3; 10%). However there were no statistically significant differences between groups at a level of p>0.05.