Analgesia after intercostal thoracotomy

At present, several possibilities of postoperative analgesia have been known in the case of thoracotomy. Most frequent is the bolus administration of various analgetic drugs, continuous analgetic infusions, or, now more preferred the epidural application of analgetic drugs. The authors compared two groups of patients subjected to intrathoracic surgery and hospitalized at the Ist Surgical Clinic in Olomouc. The first group (23 patients) was given analgetics by the classical method (bolus administration), to the second group (15 patients) epidural morphine was applied. No significant differences were found between the both groups. Postoperative complications (e.g. atelectasis) did not occur in any group of patients, values of blood gas according to Astrup were within normal limits. The day of the operation was subjectively better tolerated in the second group but there were some insignificant complications related to morphine administration (vomiting, urine retention) even in 60% of cases.