Optimum dose of epidural buprenorphine for post-operative analgesia
Ochi, G.; Kurashiki, T.
Masui. Japanese Journal of Anesthesiology 36(7): 1093-1099
1987
ISSN/ISBN: 0021-4892 PMID: 3682172 Document Number: 296032
To determine the optimum dose of epidural buprenorphine, 50 to 120 .mu.g of buprenorphine was administered to 210 post-operative patients who had undergone operations of lower abdomen or lower extremities under continuous epidural anesthesia. In the linear discriminant analysis in which the criterion variable was the analgesic effect of buprenorphine and the explanatory variables were age and sex of the patient and dose of buprenorphine administered, the coefficients of discriminant function of age and dose were statistically significant. The dose in which the discriminant function becomes equal to zero corresponds to the minimum effective dose of buprerenorphine; the dose (.mu.g/kg) = -0.061 .times. age + 4.62. In conclusion, the minimum effective dose of epidural buprenorphine can be expressed as a linear function of age of the patient. Epidural administration of small dose of buprenorphine is not so effective a means of post-operative analgesia in young patients under 40-yrs of age, while the incidence of nausea or vomitting is relatively high with thise dose of the drug. This may suggest that buprenorphine is not an ideal analgesic when administered epidurally.