Postoperative pain relief using epidural morphine

In postoperative prostatectomy patients, morphine 2 mg in 10 ml 0.9% saline was given epidurally for pain relief and its effectiveness compared with bupivacaine. The duration of analgesia with morphine was approximately double that with bupivacaine. Significant hypotension occurred in approximately 5% of the patients receiving bupivacaine, but was not seen following morphine. These seem to be important advantages in the use of morphine by this route.