Epidural meptazinol for pain relief after lower abdominal surgery

A preliminary investigation is reported into the use of epidural meptazinol for pain relief in 20 patients after major lower abdominal (gynaecological) surgery. Analgesia was rapid in onset (15 minutes), had a median duration of 124 minutes (interquartile range 85-212 minutes) after a single dose of 30 mg and a median duration of 122.5 minutes (interquartile range 70-127 minutes) after a single dose of 60 mg. Overall pain relief, as judged by the patients themselves, was satisfactory in 19 out of the 20 cases. At 30 minutes and 45 minutes pain relief was significantly better with the 60 mg than the 30 mg dose (p less than 0.02). No drug-related adverse effects were observed during the study.