RESUMEN
OBJECTIVE: To retrospectively evaluate postoperative morphine requirements in healthy living donors undergoing partial hepatectomy and patients with end-stage hepatocellular carcinoma or end-stage liver disease undergoing liver transplantation. PATIENTS AND METHODS: The study included all patients who received intravenous patient-controlled analgesia after partial hepatectomy or liver transplantation from May 2008 to February 2009. Patients were divided into 3 groups according to type of surgery: group 1, healthy living liver donors undergoing graft procurement; group 2, patients with liver cirrhosis due to chronic hepatitis B virus or hepatitis C virus infection and hepatocellular carcinoma undergoing hepatectomy; and group 3, patients with end-stage liver disease undergoing living-donor liver transplantation. Data including patient age, morphine use, and visual analog scale score on postoperative days (PODs) 1, 2, and 3 were compared between groups using 2-way analysis of variance. P<.05 was considered significant. Values are given as mean (SD). RESULTS: Morphine requirement was significantly lower only in group 3 on POD 1. No difference in visual analog scale score between groups was observed postoperatively. CONCLUSION: Although others have reported decreased morphine requirements on PODs 1, 2, and 3, our results indicated that morphine requirements were significantly less only on POD 1.