Thoracic epidural analgesia -- a double blind study between etidocaine and bupivacaine

In a double-blind study on 40 patients for elective upper abdominal surgery, measurements was made of onset time, duration and segmental spread of analgesia, systolic blood pressure, heart rate and peak expiratory flow during thoracic epidural analgesia with etidocaine 1% and bupivacaine 0.5%, both containing adrenaline 5 mug/ml. No major differences were found between the two agents. The results differ in many aspects from those obtained with these agents in lumbar epidural analgesia.