A retrospective comparison of ropivacaine and 2‐chloroprocaine continuous thoracic epidural analgesia for management of postthoracotomy pain in infants

Continuous thoracic epidural analgesia is useful in the management of infants following thoracotomy. Concerns about drug accumulation and toxicity limit the amount of amide local anesthetics that can be delivered. Continuous epidural infusions of the ester local anesthetic chloroprocaine result in little drug accumulation allowing for higher infusion rates. We retrospectively compared patients managed with 1.5% 2‐ chloroprocaine or 0.1% ropivacaine epidural infusions to determine if the increased infusion rate resulted in similar or improved analgesia.

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