• The Korean Journal of Pain
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.176-180
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• 2001

Background: The aim of our study was to evaluate the antiemetic effects of intravenous dexamethasone in preventing continuously infused epidural morphine-related nausea and vomiting. Methods: Twenty-seven patients requiring general anesthesia for gastrectomy were enrolled in a randomized, double-blinded, and placebo-controlled study. At the end of surgery, all patients received epidural morphine 3 mg and were connected to an epidural morphine infusion pump for 2 days in order to relieve postoperative pain. Before the morphine injection, the dexamethasone group (n = 12) received IV dexamethasone 10 mg, whereas the saline group (n = 15) received IV saline. The incidence of nausea & vomiting, pruritus, back pain and VAS scores were assessed in the recovery room, and at 24 h and 48 h postoperatively. Results: There was no significant difference in the total incidence of nausea and vomiting, pruritus, back pain or in the VAS scores. However, there was no vomiting and no back pain in the dexamethasone group. Conclusions: Intravenous dexamethasone did not significantly decrease the total incidence of nausea or vomiting in patients receiving continuous epidural morphine for postoperative pain control. However, IV dexamethasone appears to decrease the severity of nausea, vomiting and back pain.

• The Korean Journal of Pain
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.69-74
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• 1996

Background: Efficacy of spinal opioids for the treatment of intractable cancer pain has been reported by several authors. The epidural route seems to be a more reliable and effective method of pain control as compared to the intrathecal route which can lead to opioids by portal system. Methods: Medical records were reviewed of 18 patients who had been treated with epidural morphine via an implanted port-A-Cath from Mar. 1991 to Sep. 1994. Results: Patients were treated for a mean of 92 days. There were wide variation of dose requirements. The minimum daily dose ranged from 2 to 10mg, and maximum daily dose from 3 to 30 mg. Verbal rating scale were below moderate until 100th days after posrtal implantation. When 3 patients suffered from aggravated pain associated with vertebral metastasis. Five of 11 patients who were administered medication longer than 50 days reguired increased doses ranging from 3 mg to 25 mg which were higher as compared to initial doses. These patients also experienced pain due to vertebral metastasis. There were no report of epidural scarring, respiratory depression, epidural infections, meningitis, or catheter blockade. Conclusion: Continuous epidural morphine administration via Port-A-Cath is an effective method with minimal complication.

• The Korean Journal of Pain
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• v.6 no.2
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• pp.220-223
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• 1993

Administration of local anesthetics or morphine through epidural space has the effect of curbing postoperative increases in endocrine hormone. Other benefits include improving metabolic reaction and eliminating postoperative pain. However, repeated administration of local anesthetics through epidural space causes tachyphylaxis, and the unstable blockade of sensory nerve resulting in insufficient analgesia. Morphine has excellent postoperative analgesic effect, but complications including: itching, nausea, vomiting, urinary retention and respiratory depression may be associated with its administration. Sixty patients that fall into the category of ASA class I and II were randomly selected for the purpose of the experiment. Thirty patients were give 4 mg of morphine and the rest, 4 mg of morphine plus 80 ml of 0.25% bupivacaine administered through epidural space with the Baxter infuser. Analgesic effect was satisfactory in both groups. On the day of operation, the effect was stronger in group I (P<0.05) and on postoperative second day, group II showed better analgesic effect (P < 0.05). Group II had more patients who complained of itching (P < 0.05). Other complications were statistically insignificant. The findings indicate that administration of morphine through epidural space for postoperative pain management is an effective procedure. Baxter infuser was found to be very instrumental in pain control while reducing the chance of complications.

• The Korean Journal of Pain
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.19-22
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• 2005

Background: Most terminal cancer patients suffered from intractable pain. For the treatment of these patients, opioids, via various routes, are usually administered. Continuous epidural opioid, especially morphine, administration is a good method for the management of intractable cancer pain. Methods: We retrospectively analyzed 347 terminal cancer patients, who had been treated with continuous epidural morphine infusion, between 1999 and 2004. For the epidural infusion, an epidural catheter was inserted, tunneled subcutaneously and exited from the anterior chest or abdomen. Multiday $Infursor^{(R)}$ (Baxter, 0.5 ml/h) was used for the continuous infusion. Results: Of the 347 patients studied, there were 211 males and 136 females. The mean treatment time was 54.7 days, ranging from 5 to 481 days. The mean starting and termination doses of morphine were 32.4 (for 5 days) and 100.0 mg, respectively. The doubling time of the morphine dose was 26.3 days, corresponded to a 3.8 percent increase per day. Incidental catheter removal was the most common side effect, which occurred 130 times in 61 cases. Conclusions: The procedure of epidural catheterization, with subcutaneous tunneling, was simple and inexpensive. Despite the disadvantages, such as incidental catheter removal, it is a useful method for the control of terminal cancer pain.

• The Korean Journal of Pain
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.178-182
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• 1996

Background: To evaluate the effect of prophylactic transdermal scopolamine in reducing nausea associated with postoperative epidural morphine. Methods: 30 healthy patients scheduled for cesarean section were given local anesthetics epidurally for surgical anesthesia. After delivery of the baby, transdermal scopolamine patch($Kimite^{(R)}$ Myung Moon Pharm. Co., Seoul, Korea) was applied to the study group(n=15) and placebo patch to the control group(n=15). Postoperative analgesia was provided soley with epidural morphine. Nausea was treated with metoclopramide. Results: During 24 hours postoperatively, the mean nausea score was significantly lower in the study group than in the control group. But the nausea incidence was not significantly different between the two groups. The mean number of times antiemetic drugs which were administered to patients were lower in the study group than in the control group($1.5{\pm}0.5$ vs $3.3{\pm}1.3$, p<0.05). Conclusion: Transdermal scopolamine patch provides antiemetic effect simply, continuously and safely, preventing nausea which could occur during administration of epidural morphine after cesarean section.

• The Korean Journal of Pain
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.34-41
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• 1997

Background : Patient-controlled analgesia(PCA) is a safe and effective technique for providing postoperative pain relief. Studies that compare epidural vs intravenous routes of opiate administration show conflicting results. We designed a prospective, randomized, controlled study to evaluate the safety and efficacy of epidural(EPI-PCA) morphine-bupivacaine versus intravenous (IV-PCA) nalbuphine when administered with a PCA system. Methods : Forty healthy women were randomly assigned to receive an epidural bolus of morphine 3 mg and 0.5% bupivacaine 10 ml, followed by a EPI-PCA with 0.01% morphine and 0.143% bupivacane (basal infusion 1 ml/hr, bolus 1 ml, lock-out interval 30 min) or intravenous bolus of nalbuphine 0.1 mg/kg followed by a IV-PCA with nalbuphine(basal infusion 1 mg/hr, bolus 1 ml, lock-out interval 20 min) for pain relief after cesarean delivery. This study was conducted for 2 days after cesarean section to compare the analgesic efficacy, side effects, patient satisfaction either as EPI-PCA or as IV-PCA. Results : EPI-PCA group had significant lower visual analog pain scale(VAS) at immediate postoperative period, whereas no significant difference was observed when pain was assessed at other time sequence. Urinary retention and pruritus were more frequent with EPI-PCA group, although the incidence of other side effects were the same. Conclusions : Although EPI-PCA with morphine-bupivacaine was of significantly lower VAS at immediate postoperative period, IV-PCA with nalbuphine is a safe and effective alternative to EPI-PCA with morphine-bupivacaine for providing pain relief after cesarean delivery. Further studies about IV-PCA with nalbuphine are needed to control the immediate postoperative pain and to further improve effective pain management.

• The Korean Journal of Pain
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.96-100
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• 2006

Pain control is very important in managing terminal cancer patients and there are several modalities to alleviate their pain. A high dosage of epidural morphine is effective to control terminal cancer pain. Furthermore, to decrease the amount of morphine, adding an alternative adjuvant like ketamine to the morphine regimen is considered helpful for controlling the pain of a terminal cancer patient. A 45 year old male patient with terminal lung cancer had neck pain that was caused by multiple bone metastases. Continuous epidural block was started with 2 mg/day of morphine and the dosage was gradually increased to 90 mg/day in 86 days. 30 mg/day of ketamine was then added to it. Overall, the morphine and ketamine dosages were increased to 564 mg/day and 140 mg/day, respectively, in 11 months until the patient expired. In this case, the high dosage of epidural morphine, 580 mg/day, was administered to control cancer pain without any severe adverse effects.

• Journal of Yeungnam Medical Science
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• v.2 no.1
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• pp.39-44
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• 1985

To assess the effect of post-operative pain control of upper abdominal surgery through lumbar epidural narcotic injection, the 3rd or 4th lumbar epidural puncture was done, and were injected 1mg, of morphine (Group I) or 10mg, of demerol (Group II) mixed with 10ml of normal saline into the epidural space, after operation of the cholecystectomy in 10patients and antrectomy and vagotomy, subtotal or total gastrectomy in 10patients. Time interval of the post-operative analgesic effect between morphine and demerol groups were compared. The results of this study were as follows: 1. In the group I, average analgesic duration was 29.4 hours. 2. In the group II, average analgesic duration was 4.0 hours. It is concluded that post-operative pain control of upper abdominal surgery through the lumbar epidural narcotic injection was effective, and morphine injection was more effective than demerol.

• The Korean Journal of Pain
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.386-389
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• 1995

Combined infusion of local anesthetics and opioids has been a common method for providing postoperative analgesia. Complications that can occur with this method include pruritus, nausea and vomiting, urinary retention, hypotension, and both early and late respiratory depression. Late respiratory depression is a rare but feared complication to epidural opioid therapy. We experienced a case of respiratory arrest during epidural infusion of bupivacaine and morphine.

• The Korean Journal of Pain
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.95-100
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• 1999

Background: About 75% of terminal cancer patients have severe pain. For the treatment of these patients, physicians usually use potent opioid analgesics. But many of the cancer patients were not controlled by IV or IM injection of opioids. In spite of the untreatable nature of the patient's illness, they should be hospitalized only for pain control. In that case, epidural opioid injection is one of the most effective methods in pain management. Methods: We retrospectively analyzed 126 terminal cancer patients who were treated with epidural morphine for pain management from 1993-97. In the routine procedure, an epidural catheter was inserted into the epidural space and tunnelled subcutaneously, exiting out from the anterior chest or abdomen. Morphine was used as the main analgesic and Multiday Infusor$^{(R)}$ (Baxter, 0.5 ml/h) as a continuous infusion system. Results: 1. Mean treatment time was 55 days (range; 3~373). 2. Mean daily epidural start mg dose of morphine was 8 mg (range; 2~20). 3. Mean daily dose at termination was 19 mg (range; 4~60) 4. 94 patients were controlled with continuous infusion but 32 patients needed additional bolus doses of morphine. 5. heter-associated subcutaneous infection occurred in 2 patients (1.6%). Conclusion: Terminal cancer pain management administered by a tunnelled epidural catheter is a simple, inexpensive method with a very small rate of infection.