[Epidural injection for postoperative pain relief after thoracoscopic surgery]

For the pain relief after thoracoscopic surgery, the epidural injection of buprenorphine was performed in 46 cases. In 28 cases, intermittent injection was performed before awaking from anesthesia. The effect was excellent in 6 cases, who were free from pain without any more injection after returning to the ward, and good in 27 cases, who sometimes felt dull pain and had another analgetics (intermittent epidural injection in 16 cases, intermittent epidural injection and another medication in 5 cases). In 18 cases, continuous injection was performed. The effect was excellent in 9 cases and good in 9 cases. It was concluded that the epidural injection had effective analgesic effect after thoracoscopic surgery, both in intermittent injection group and continuous injection group. For limited medication, the intermittent epidural injection was considered the first choice after thoracoscopic surgery.