Postoperative continuous plexular analgesia. A study on the side effects and risk factors of catheter infection.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES The importance of postoperative analgesia has increased over the years. Plexular catheters represent a good option for high quality analgesia with reduced systemic repercussions. The objective of the present study was to evaluate the incidence of side effects and complications in postoperative analgesia with plexular catheters and identify risk factors for bacterial colonization of the catheters. METHODS Patients undergoing orthopedic surgeries between March of 2005 and January of 2007 received analgesia via plexular catheters. The incidence of side effects and complications of this technique were evaluated. In some of the cases, the catheter tip was cultured. RESULTS Four hundred and thirty-three patients were evaluated. Urinary retention and nausea/vomiting had an incidence of 1.3 and 16.6%, respectively. Of 280 catheters examined, 8.6% were colonized. Infections, nerve lesions, or systemic repercussion were not observed. CONCLUSIONS The use of antibiotics preoperatively and the type of needle were the risk factors of infection identified.