Acute Pain
Volume 9, Issue 4 , Pages 193-199 , December 2007

Epidural methadone for acute post-thoracotomy pain: An alternative to a ropivacaine plus fentanyl-based patient-controlled epidural regimen

  • Jordi Perez

      Affiliations

    • Department of Anaesthesia, Hospital Clinic, University of Barcelona, Villarroel 170, Barcelona 08036, Spain
    • Corresponding Author InformationCorresponding author. Tel.: +34 93 227 5558; fax: +34 93 451 75 53.
  • ,
  • Maria-Jose Jiménez

      Affiliations

    • Department of Anaesthesia, Hospital Clinic, University of Barcelona, Villarroel 170, Barcelona 08036, Spain
  • ,
  • Gillermina Fita

      Affiliations

    • Department of Anaesthesia, Hospital Clinic, University of Barcelona, Villarroel 170, Barcelona 08036, Spain
  • ,
  • Irene Rovira

      Affiliations

    • Department of Anaesthesia, Hospital Clinic, University of Barcelona, Villarroel 170, Barcelona 08036, Spain
  • ,
  • Miquel Catalan

      Affiliations

    • Department of Thoracic Surgery, Hospital Clinic, University of Barcelona, Spain
  • ,
  • Carmen Gomar

      Affiliations

    • Department of Anaesthesia, Hospital Clinic, University of Barcelona, Villarroel 170, Barcelona 08036, Spain

Received 6 May 2007 ,Revised 24 July 2007 ,Accepted 16 August 2007.

References 

  1. Kruger M, McRae K. Pain management in cardiothoracic practice. Surg Clin North Am. 1999;79:387–400
  2. Sandler AN. Post-thoracotomy analgesia and perioperative outcome. Minerva Anestesiol. 1999;65:267–274
  3. Block BM, Liu SS, Rowlingson AJ, Cowan AR, Cowan JA, Wu CL. Efficacy of postoperative epidural analgesia a meta-analysis. JAMA. 2003;290:2455–2463
  4. Ballantyne JC, Carr DB, DeFerranti S, Suarez T, Lau J, Chalmers TC, et al. The comparative effects of postoperative analgesic therapies on pulmonary outcome: cumulative meta-analyses of randomized, controlled trials. Anesth Analg. 1998;86:598–612
  5. Della Rocca G, Coccia C, Pompei L, Costa MG, Pierconti F, Di Marco P, et al. Post-thoracotomy analgesia: epidural vs intravenous morphine continuous infusion. Minerva Anestesiol. 2002;68:681–693
  6. Inturrisi CE. Clinical pharmacology of opioids for pain. Clin J Pain. 2002;18:S3–S13
  7. Shir Y, Rosen G, Zeldin A, Davidson EM. Methadone is safe for treating hospitalized patients with severe pain. Can J Anesth. 2001;48:1109–1113
  8. Prieto-Alvarez P, Tello-Galindo I, Cuenca-Pena J, Rull-Bartomeu M, Gomar-Sancho C. Continuous epidural infusion of racemic methadone results in effective postoperative analgesia and low plasma concentrations. Can J Anesth. 2002;49:25–31
  9. Parramon F, García Ch , Gambús P, Vilaplana J, Aragonés N, Villalonga A. Epidural methadone is more effective than intravenous methadone in postoperative patient-controlled analgesia after thoracic surgery (Article in Spanish). Rev Esp Anestesiol. 2003;50:326–331
  10. Villalonga A, Gomar C, Nalda MA. Effect of the peridural methadone concentration in postoperative analgesia (Article in Spanish). Rev Esp Anestesiol. 1989;36:260–263
  11. Ramsay MA, Savege TM, Simpson BR, Goodwin R. Controlled sedation with alphaxalone-alphadolone. BMJ. 1974;22:656–659
  12. Wu CL, Caldwell MD. Effect of post-operative analgesia on patient morbidity. Best Pract Res Clin Anaesthesiol. 2002;16:549–563
  13. Zink W, Graf BM. Benefit-risk assessment of ropivacaine in the management of postoperative pain. Drug Saf. 2004;27:1093–1114
  14. Gruber EM, Tschernko EM, Kritzinger M, Deviatko E, Wisser W, Zurakowski D, et al. The effects of thoracic epidural analgesia with bupivacaine 0, 25% on ventilatory mechanics in patient with severe chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Anesth Analg. 2001;92:1015–1019
  15. Macias A, Monedero P, Adame M, Torre W, Fidalgo I, Hidalgo F. A randomized, double-blinded comparison of thoracic epidural ropivacaine, ropivacaine/fentanyl, or bupivacaine/fentanyl for post-thoracotomy analgesia. Anesth Analg. 2002;95:1344–1350
  16. De Leon-Cassasola OA, Lema MJ. Postoperative epidural opioid analgesia: what are the choices?. Anesth Analg. 1996;83:867–875
  17. Jeon Y, Hwang J, Kang J, Han S, Rhee K, Oh Y. Effects of epidural naloxone on pruritus induced by epidural morphine: a randomized controlled trial. Int J Obst Anesth. 2005;14:22–25
  18. Cousins MJ, Mather LE. Intrathecal epidural administration of opioids. Anesthesiology. 1984;61:276–310
  19. Payne R, Gradert TL, Inturrisi CE. Cerebrospinal fluid distribution of opioids after intraventricular and lumbar subarachnoid administration in sheep. Life Sci. 1996;59:1307–1321
  20. Gedney JA, Liu EH. Side-effects of epidural infusions of opioid bupivacaine mixtures. Anaesthesia. 1998;53:1148–1155
  21. Wheatley RG, Schung SA, Watson D. Safety and efficacy of postoperative epidural analgesia. Brit J Anaesth. 2001;87:47–61
  22. Matot I, Drenger B, Weissman C, Shauli A, Gozal Y. Epidural clonidine, bupivacaine and methadone as the sole analgesic agent after thoracotomy for lung resection. Anaesthesia. 2004;59:861–866
  23. Ginosar Y, Riley ET, Angt MS. The site of action of epidural fentanyl in humans: the difference between infusion and bolus administration. Anesth Analg. 2003;97:1428–1438

PII: S1366-0071(07)00150-7

doi: 10.1016/j.acpain.2007.08.024

Acute Pain
Volume 9, Issue 4 , Pages 193-199 , December 2007