A comparison of the efficacy of intravenous and epidural analgesia after thoracosurgery in children

Introduction. The treatment of postoperative pain is still an open problem. Commonly used methods for pain relief are subjects of new
research in the field of standard opioid use, as well as other well known methods of epidural anesthesia.

Aim of the study. The study was aimed at comparing the efficacy of intravenous morphine and epidural bupivacaine analgesia vs. bupivacaine
with morphine pain relief method applied during the first 24 hours after the thoracosurgery in children.

Material and methods. Eighty nine children, from 7 to 18 years old, were divided into two groups. Group I (n = 30) comprised patients
receiving morphine i.v. and group II (n = 59) included individuals receiving analgesia through a thoracic extradural catheter. Group II was
divided into two subgroups II A (n = 30) and II B (n = 29) consisting of patients receiving bupivacainum 0.25% every 4 hours and bupivacainum
0.25% with morphine 2.5mg/20ml every 6 hours, respectively. The intensity of pain was evaluated 5 times using verbal scale and the
Numerical Rating Scale.

Results and conclusions. Research showed that low dose morphine combined with bupivacaine gave good and long duration of thoracic
block and provided an improved analgesia than intravenous morphine. The benefits of epidural analgesia allow applying it frequently in
pediatric thoracic anaesthesia.