Comparison of prostaglandin E1 and epidural anesthesia for mastectomy

Hypotensive anesthesia has been used in an attempt to reduce intraoperative blood loss. Although both epidural anesthesia and vasodilators have been used to establish the controlled hypotensive anesthesia, little is known about the differences between the two method. We compared epidural anesthesia and prostaglandin (PG) El in patients scheduled for total mastectomy. Sixty women were randomly assigned to one of two groups. In the epidural group (n = 30), patients received epidural catheterization at the T1/T2 interspace. In the PG E1 group (n = 30), PG E1 was started at 0.05 microg/ kg/ min. In both groups, anesthesia was maintained using N2O/ O2 and isoflurane. During surgery, heart rate in the epidural group was significant lower than in the PG E1 group (P < 0.05). There were no differences in the duration of operation, intraoperative blood pressure, and blood loss between the two groups. It is concluded that both epidural anesthesia and PG E1 are similarly useful for establishment of controlled hypotension in mastectomy.