Single-injection epidural anesthesia with bupivacaine and morphine for prostatectomy

In 30 patients having prostatectomies, 15 patients (group I) given single-injection epidural anesthesia using bupivacaine and morphine (4 mg) were compared with 15 patients (group II) given epidural bupivacaine without morphine. Patients in group I had pain relief for a mean duration of 27 hours and did not request additional analgesia. Patients receiving bupivacaine alone had pain relief for an average of 6.2 hours after surgery; all required narcotics postoperatively. It was concluded that the addition of 4 mg of morphine to the local anesthetic for epidural anesthesia in patients having prostatectomies results in excellent postoperative analgesia.