Abstract
Management of postoperative pain is very important for the recovery of patients after surgical operation, and it affects the outcome. Recently several studies revealed that epidural analgesia is useful for postoperative pain management. The techniques of drug administration into the epidural space include a single injection, continuous infusion and patient-controlled epidural analgesia (PCEA). In these, PCEA provides better pain relief than others. It is well known that the combination with a local anesthetic and an opioid is most effective for pain relief without the side effects. Drug selection of a local anesthetic or an opioid is necessary to understand their characteristics. Ropivacaine, levobupivacaine or bupivacaine are choices as the local anesthetic, and morphine or fentanyl as the opioid. Further research is needed for the choice of optimal drugs.
