Postoperative morbidity is similar inpatients anesthetized with epidural and general anesthesia for radical prostatectomy

Abstract

Objectives To compare the effect of epidural and general anesthesia on thepostoperative course and complication rate in patients undergoing radical prostatectomy. Methods Ninety-eight men scheduled for radical retropubic prostatectomy (RRP) wererandomly assigned to receive epidural anesthesia only (EA, n = 34), combined epidural and general anesthesia (EG, n = 33) or general anesthesia only (GA, n = 31). In the EA group, epidural anesthesia was induced and maintained with bupivacaine. In the EG group, patients received epidural bupivacaine after the induction of general anesthesia. In the GA group, anesthesia was induced with morphine and maintained with isoflurane. In the postoperative period, epidural patient-controlled analgesia (PCA) was maintained in all patients for 3 to 5 days. Patients were evaluated throughout the hospitalization period and at 3, 6, and 12 weeks following surgery. Results The three groups did not differ with regard to postoperative pain, bleeding,urine output, fever, length of paralytic ileus, or length of hospitalization. No major cardiovascular, pulmonary, or neurologic complications occurred in any of the patients either perioperatively or in the first 3 months postoperatively. Conclusions Intraoperative anesthetic technique was not associated with a different postoperative complication rate in patients undergoing RRP. The very low incidence of complications and the uniform postoperative analgesic regimen may have contributed to the similarity between groups.