Efficacy of Epidural Analgesia in Patients with Cancer Pain: A Retrospective Observational Study

PURPOSE: Pain in terminal cancer patients may be refractory to systemic analgesics or associated with adverse drug reactions to analgesics. Epidural analgesia has been effectively used in such patients for pain control. However, this method does not provide pain relief to all patients. The efficacy and complications of continuous epidural analgesia were evaluated for expanding efficacy in terminal cancer patients. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The charts of patients who received epidural analgesia for over 5 years for the control of terminal cancer pain were reviewed retrospectively. RESULTS: Ninety-six patients received 127 epidural catheters. The mean duration for epidural catheterization was 31.5±55.6 (5-509) days. The dose of epidural morphine increased by 3.5% per day. The efficacy of epidural analgesia at 2 weeks follow up revealed improved pain control (n=56), as the morphine equivalent drug dose dropped from 213.4 mg/day to 94.1 mg/day (p<0.05) at 2 weeks follow up. Accordingly, after 2 weeks institution of epidural analgesia, there was a significant reduction in the proportion of patients with severe pain, from 78.1% to 19.6% (p<0.05). CONCLUSION: Epidural analgesia was an effective pain control method in patients with terminal cancer pain, however, a systematized algorithm for the control of cancer-related pain in needed.