Comparative study of epidural bupivacaine with butorphanol and bupivacaine with tramadol for postoperative pain relief in abdominal surgeries

INTRODUCTION: To compare the efficacy of combination of epidural local anesthetic with tramadol and butorphanol in major abdominal surgeries. AIMS: To evaluate duration of analgesia, analgesic efficacy, and safety profile of two groups of drugs-epidural butorphanol with bupivacaine and epidural tramadol with bupivacaine. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A prospective, randomized controlled, double-blinded study was undertaken in 50 patients scheduled for major abdominal surgeries. Group B received epidural butorphanol 2 mg + bupivacaine 0.125% first dose and subsequent doses, butorphanol 1 mg + bupivacaine 0.125% (total volume 10 ml). Group T received epidural tramadol 2 mg/kg + bupivacaine 0.125% first dose and subsequent doses, tramadol 1 mg/kg + bupivacaine 0.125% (total volume 10 ml). Observed parameters were the quality of analgesia, sedation, and hemodynamic parameters in the intra and post-operative period. Time for request of rescue analgesia was noted in all the patients. Continuous data are analyzed by Student's t-test using IBM SPSS software version 20. P ≤0.05 was considered to be statistically significant. P ≤ 0.001 was considered to be statistically highly significant. RESULTS: Visual analog scale better with butorphanol group than tramadol (0.12 ± 0.332 and 0.84 ± 0.746 for Group B and Group T) at 30 min after first dose. Onset of action (8.44 ± 1.158 min in Group B and 12.80 ± 1.354 min in Group T) faster with butorphanol but duration of analgesia longer with tramadol (5.92 ± 0.76 h in Group B vs. 7.68 ± 0.76 h in Group T). Sedation was seen in patients with butorphanol group. Nausea and vomiting more frequent with tramadol group. CONCLUSIONS: Epidural tramadol with antiemetic is better than butorphanol for its longer duration in ambulatory surgery, elderly patients, obese patients, and suitable high-risk patients.