A local anesthesia infused directly into the surgical site after colorectal surgery improved post-operative pain relief and reduced both time to recovery of bowel function and hospital stay.
Anesthesiologists in Paris randomized patients scheduled for open colorectal surgery to have either the anesthetic ropivacaine or a saline placebo continuously infused into a long catheter implanted deep within the surgical wound at the end of the operation. Patients also used a patient-controlled morphine pump to manage pain.
While in the recovery room immediately after surgery, fewer patients who received active treatment via the catheter with ropivacaine needed intravenous morphine to manage pain and those who did required lower doses.
Over the next post-operative three days, the new technique reduced the amount of morphine needed while patients were resting and when they coughed. Sleep during the first two nights after surgery was also improved.
Ropivacaine infusion shortened bowel function recovery time and length of hospital stay.
No side effects were noted during the study.
SOURCE: Beaussier et al, Anesthesiology. 107(3):461-468, September 2007.
An article about the study appears on MedPage Today, August 24, 2007.
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