ABSTRACT
The epidural injection of 4 mg of morphine in a volume of 4 ml, 7 ml, and 10 ml (groups I, II, and III) for post-operative analgesia after Caesarean section(30 patients), was evaluated. Thirty patients received continuous epidural anesthesia with 2% lidocaine 20 ml, 8.4% bicarbonate 2 ml and epinephrine 1: 200,000. Patients were established to T4 level anesthesia with above local anesthetics, supplemented with 2% lidocaine, when necessary. Each patient received 4 mg of morphine epidurally after delivery of baby. The postoperative pain relief was considered good in all three groups. The duration of of pain relief in each group, I, II, and III was 22.2+/-2.9, 20.6+/-4.6 and 21.6+/-4.2 hours, respectively, which showed no statistical difference between any two youps. The quality of pain relief was almost same, except during 12~18 hours after observation, In tbat period, there was better pain relief in group I than the other two groups (p<0.05). With the result of this study, it might be suggested that we'd better use 4ml of injected volume when we give 4mg of epidural morphine after Caesarean section for postoperative pain control, even though the small difference was seen only after 12~18 hours.