Analgesic efficacy and safety of oxycodone as an adjuvant epidural analgesia for patients undergoing laparotomy gynecology

Abstract

Postoperative pain, when poorly controlled, will cause chronic pain and prolong the healing process. The use of an epidural catheter is a safe and effective method for pain relief in the intraoperative and postoperative period. Opioid as an adjuvant can increase the potency and duration of epidural analgesia. Morphine has been used as an adjuvant in epidural analgesia, but with known side effects such as nausea, vomiting, and pruritus. Oxycodone is one of the opioids which can be given through epidural route as an adjuvant with fewer side effects than morphine. In this case series, we describe six patients with American Society of Anesthesiologists physical status I–II who underwent laparotomy gynecological surgery. All patients were managed by combined general and epidural anesthesia. The regimen for epidural anesthesia is bupivacaine with oxycodone as adjuvant. In this study, we described the hemodynamic profile, quality of analgesia, side effects, and anti-inflammatory effect of oxycodone as an adjuvant in epidural analgesia.