Postoperative analgesia and lung function: a comparison of morphine with extradural block.

Twenty-one patients for vagotomy with gastroenterostomy or pyloroplasty were allocated randomly to postoperative analgesia with either morphine by injection or continuous extradural nerve block. In terms of clinical assessment and A–a Po 2 difference measured before and after operation, extradural nerve block was found to reduce the degree of postoperative lung dysfunction. It is concluded that the conventional use of narcotics for postoperative analgesia increases the risk of lung morbidity.

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