Patient-controlled on-demand epidural fentanyl. A comparison of patient-controlled on-demand fentanyl delivered epidurally or intravenously.

ABSTRACT

A prospective, open, clinical trial is described in which 20 patients having upper abdominal surgery were randomly allocated to receive fentanyl for postoperative analgesia by patient-controlled demand analgesic computer by either the epidural or intravenous route. Hourly pain, sedation and nausea scores were very similar in the two groups during the first 24 hours after surgery. What few differences there were favoured the epidural group. There was a highly significant difference in fentanyl consumption between the two groups, with the intravenous group demanding consistently more than twice as much as the epidural group.