A Pilot Study of Bupivacaine Infusion in Abdominal Surgery

Summary

The incisions used in abdominal surgery can be quite painful, requiring strong pain medications. A new pain pump that trickles small amounts of local freezing into the incision has been developed that helps numb the area so that the patient does not feel the pain for two to five days after surgery. The main research question is whether use of the pain pump will result in decreased hospital length of stay. The research is important because if the pain pump is found to be effective, it can substantially decrease the length of stay. Areas to be studied include hospital length of stay, patient's comfort post-operatively, and post-operative complications.

Timeline

Start

2005-04

Primary completion

2013-04

Completion

2013-04

Publications

• Background Skinner HB, Shintani EY. Results of a multimodal analgesic trial involving patients with total hip or total knee arthroplasty. Am J Orthop (Belle Mead NJ). 2004 Feb;33(2):85-92; discussion 92.
• Background Carabine UA, Gilliland H, Johnston JR, McGuigan J. Pain relief for thoracotomy. Comparison of morphine requirements using an extrapleural infusion of bupivacaine. Reg Anesth. 1995 Sep-Oct;20(5):412-7.
• Background Baroody M, Tameo MN, Dabb RW. Efficacy of the pain pump catheter in immediate autologous breast reconstruction. Plast Reconstr Surg. 2004 Sep 15;114(4):895-8; discussion 899-900. doi: 10.1097/01.prs.0000133173.71201.3c.
• Background White PF, Rawal S, Latham P, Markowitz S, Issioui T, Chi L, Dellaria S, Shi C, Morse L, Ing C. Use of a continuous local anesthetic infusion for pain management after median sternotomy. Anesthesiology. 2003 Oct;99(4):918-23. doi: 10.1097/00000542-200310000-00026.
• Background Cheong WK, Seow-Choen F, Eu KW, Tang CL, Heah SM. Randomized clinical trial of local bupivacaine perfusion versus parenteral morphine infusion for pain relief after laparotomy. Br J Surg. 2001 Mar;88(3):357-9. doi: 10.1046/j.1365-2168.2001.01717.x.
• Background Clinical Outcomes of Surgical Therapy Study Group; Nelson H, Sargent DJ, Wieand HS, Fleshman J, Anvari M, Stryker SJ, Beart RW Jr, Hellinger M, Flanagan R Jr, Peters W, Ota D. A comparison of laparoscopically assisted and open colectomy for colon cancer. N Engl J Med. 2004 May 13;350(20):2050-9. doi: 10.1056/NEJMoa032651.
• Background Ashcraft EE, Baillie GM, Shafizadeh SF, McEvoy JR, Mohamed HK, Lin A, Baliga PK, Rogers J, Rajagopalan PR, Chavin KD. Further improvements in laparoscopic donor nephrectomy: decreased pain and accelerated recovery. Clin Transplant. 2001;15 Suppl 6:59-61. doi: 10.1034/j.1399-0012.2001.00011.x.
• Background Melzack R. The McGill Pain Questionnaire: major properties and scoring methods. Pain. 1975 Sep;1(3):277-299. doi: 10.1016/0304-3959(75)90044-5.

Drugs

Indications

No indication recorded.