%0 Journal Article
%T Combined analgesic treatment of epidural and paravertebral block after thoracic surgery
%A Daichi Shikata
%A Taichiro Goto
%A Takahiro Nakagomi
%A Yujiro Yokoyama
%J SCIE-indexed Journal
%D 2017
%R 10.21037/jtd.2017.05.27
%X Thoracotomy induces severe postoperative pain, which can cause respiratory complications such as hypoxia, atelectasis and pulmonary infections (1). In addition, inadequate pain control can lead to post-thoracotomy pain syndrome, which may continue for many years (2), thus an appropriate pain management is essential after surgery. Conventionally, the most common pain management after chest surgery is epidural analgesia (EPI). EPI is clearly effective in managing the pain, however, it still has contraindications and the risk of severe complications. In addition, the reported failure rates of EPI are as high as 12% (3), and the effects of this analgesia vary among patients. Recently, paravertebral block (PVB) has been reported as an alternative to EPI (4-7). PVB has equivalent analgesic effects to EPI and have a lower incidence of side effects, such as nausea, vomiting, hypotension and urinary retention (8-10)
%U http://jtd.amegroups.com/article/view/13935/html