BACKGROUND Patient-controlled epidural analgesia with low concentrations of anesthetics is effective in reducing labor pain. The aim of this study was to assess and compare two ultra-low dose regimens of ropivacaine and sufentanil (0.1% ropivacaine plus 0.5 μg.ml-1 sufentanil vs. 0.06% ropivacaine plus 0.5 μg.ml-1 sufentanil) on the intervals between boluses and the duration of labor. MATERIA...

BACKGROUND The current standard labor epidural analgesic regimens consist of a local anesthetic in combination with an opioid delivered via continuous epidural infusion (CEI). With CEI local anesthetic, doses may be large with resulting profound motor blockade potentially affecting the incidence of instrumental deliveries. In this systematic review of randomized controlled trials (RCTs), we com...

BACKGROUND The objective of this meta-analysis was to compare the efficacy and safety of patient-controlled epidural analgesia (PCEA) and patient-controlled intravenous analgesia (PCIA) in postoperative analgesia of spinal fusion surgery. METHODS Potential academic articles were identified from the Cochrane Library, Medline (1966-2015.5), PubMed (1966-2015.5), Embase (1980-2015.5) and Science...

BACKGROUND In previous studies comparing patient-controlled-analgesia and intramuscular pain management have been unable to provide conclusive evidence of the benefits of either method of postoperative pain control. AIM The purpose of the study was to compare the efficacy and cost-effectiveness of intravenous patient-controlled-analgesia with intermittent intramuscular morphine for Chinese wo...

Spine surgery remains one of the most common procedures for patients with a wide variety of spine disorders. Postoperative pain after major spine surgery is moderate to severe. We retrospectively reviewed 245 medical records of adult patients undergoing major spine surgery who received either patient-controlled epidural analgesia based on local anesthetics and opioids or patient-controlled intr...