Long-term epidural morphine analgesia

Long-term treatment for malignant pain with morphine epidurally poses some technical problems: infection and contamination of epidural space, fixation of the epidural cannula, personal hygiene of the patient, etc. We suggest that a solution to these problems is subcutaneous tunnelling of the epidural cannula. This paper describes our technique and presents the case histories of two patients. In one case, a single epidural cannula was used for 207 days for treatment with morphine epidurally without any complication.