[Using epidural anesthesia in patients with acute pancreatitis--prospective study of 121 patients]

According to a previous study, an excellent level of analgesia can be expected when using epidural anaesthesia in patients with acute pancreatitis. In the present investigation, the effectiveness and safety of epidural anaesthesia is demonstrated in a large group of patients with severe acute pancreatitis, who were admitted to an intensive care unit. Epidural anaesthesia alone produced excellent analgesia on 1,083 of 1,496 observation days (72%) without the systemic use of other analgesic substances. Even in patients with marginal cardiovascular stability, epidural injection of local anaesthetic solution was tolerated well. Only 8% of all local anaesthetic injections were associated with a haemodynamic reaction that required pharmacological intervention. There was no case of a septic or neurological complication of epidural anaesthesia. Initially elevated serum amylase and lipase were normalized after 17.4 days (minimum one day, maximum 19 days). Surgical intervention was necessary for 36 patients, with a total of 64 surgeries having to be performed, including cholecystectomy. Sixteen patients required artificial ventilation for an average time of 12.3 days (minimum two days, maximum 48 days). Lethality was 2.5% (three patients), with all three patients suffering from an acute stage III pancreatitis. The average duration of ICU treatment was 12.4 days (minimum two days, maximum 101 days).