&NA; Our study evaluated 116 surgical patients with cancer who received postoperative epidural analgesia with bupivacaine (BUP) (0.1%) and morphine (MS) (0.01%) during 5 days after epidural‐light general anesthesia. Patients in group I (n = 17) were taking opioids in doses larger than 50 mg of morphine daily for 3 mo or more, whereas patients in group II (n = 99) were opioid‐naive. Postoperative epidural infusions were started at 10 mL•h‐1 for group I and 5 mL•h‐1 for group II. All patients were evaluated every 6 h for pain, withdrawal, and overdosing. Dynamic pain scores were kept below 4/10 by titrating infusions and/or giving intravenous (IV) MS 4 mg every hour as needed. Fifteen patients were taking opioids for 3‐6 mo and the remainder for more than 6 mo. Mean oral MS preoperative usage for group I was 183 mg (90‐360 mg range). All patients experienced adequate analgesia. Group I required more epidural (137 vs 44 mg) and IV (48 vs 10 mg) MS and had a longer requirement for analgesic therapy (9 vs 3 days) when compared with group II. Daily epidural and IV MS usage were always more for group I by two‐ to threefold. No patient experienced respiratory depression or opioid withdrawal during the hospitalization. Thus, epidural BUP‐MS appears to provide adequate postoperative analgesia while preventing withdrawal in opioid‐dependent patients, if three times the normal dosage and duration of therapy are employed. (Anesth Analg 1993;76:302‐7)