Multimodal analgesia after open abdominal surgery: epidural versus intravenous patient-controlled

Background: Abdominal surgery is a type of surgery with a high percentage in general surgery department. After this surgery, pain is severe and multimodal analgesia is recommended. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of epidural analgesia with intravenous bupivacaine-fentanyl plus paracetamol compared with ketorolac plus paracetamol and intravenous morphine as rescue. Materials and methods: In a randomized controlled clinical trial, 70 patients aged 18 years or older, ASA I - III, with an indication for open abdominal surgery were randomly divided into two treatment groups. The PCEA group received bupivacaine 0.1% + fentanyl 2mcg/ml and intravenous paracetamol, the IV-PCA group received ketorolac and paracetamol combined with intravenous morphine as rescue. VAS scores at rest and on movement, patient satisfaction, side effects. Results: VAS scores at rest and on movement in both groups were less than 4 in the first 48 hours postoperatively and in the PCEA group lower than the IV-PCA group (p < 0.05). The level of very satisfied in the PCEA group was statistically significantly higher than in the IV-PCA group (71.4% versus 22.9%). Satisfaction level in group IV-PCA accounted for 71.4%. Side effects of the two groups were low rate and mild. Conclusion: Multimodal analgesia by using epidural bupivacaine - fentanyl combined with intravenous paracetamol was more effective than ketorolac combined with intravenous paracetamol and rescue by intravenous morphine after open abdominal surgery. In cases where epidural analgesia is not applied, intravenous multimodal analgesia also provides good analgesia. Key words: open abdominal surgery, multimodal analgesia, epidural, intravenous.