Medical Discount Blog

The use of epidural anesthetics for greater surgery has been somewhat controversial. There doesn't seem to be much question that it effectively reduces pain, but its safety has caused more bear upon.

"Using an epidural for pain control after a greater operation was safe and actually caused a slightly improved survival for patients who received an epidural," said lead researcher Dr. Duminda Wijeysundera, from Ontario's Institute towards Clinical Evaluative Sciences, province of anesthesia, at Toronto General Hospital and the University of Toronto.

People generally have less pain and a lower risk of pneumonia if they use some epidural after a major operation, Wijeysundera said. "But a lot of people are nervous about having an epidural, as it involves a needle and a catheter being placed in their back," he said.

This procedure allows medication to be delivered around the nerves in the epidural space of the spine to prevent pain. Alternative methods of pain control include narcotic pain medication given by injection or via an intravenous cord.

The new report was published in the Aug. 11 online edition of the Lancet.

conducive to the study, Wijeysundera's arrange collected data on more than 259,000 patients who underwent a major noncardiac surgery betwixt 1994 and 2004.

Twenty-two percent of patients received an epidural anesthetic. The researchers found that these people were at a slightly lower risk of dying after 30 days (1.7 percent) compared with patients who had not accepted an epidural (2.0 percent).

This means that to thwart one decease, 477 patients would have to receive each epidural anesthetic, the researchers noted. In the United States, about one million people a year undergo a major operation, Wijeysundera said.

"This study provides reassuring information that epidural anesthetic is safe and may slightly increase the chance of surviving a major operation," Wijeysundera said. "These results may help patients make better informed choices about how they manage their pain after a major operation," he said.

"You need to control post-operative pain," noted person expert, Dr. Zeev N. Kain, chair of the Department of Anesthesiology and Perioperative Care at the University of California, Irvine. "Pain is not good for you, because it hinders your recovery," he said.

The bottom line, Kain said, is that epidurals are safe and should be used but not because of this very slight improvement in survival. He believes that — especially for major procedures — epidurals often relieve anxiety better than other methods.

"If you have surgeries to remove the pancreas or liver resection or a Whipple procedure, where they take half your abdominal cavity out, these are very painful procedures," Kain said. "For them, there is no question that the best pain relief is epidural," he said.

More information

For greater degree on epidural anesthetic, visit the Medline Plus.