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| | ASA: Patient Controlled Analgesia Associated with Lower Infection Rates than Epidural Analgesia in Morbidly Obese ... (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-09) |
 | | ORLANDO, FL -- October 16, 2002 -- In morbidly obese patients undergoing gastric bypass surgery, patient controlled analgesia (PCA) with morphine is an effective method of postoperative pain control and is associated with a lower rate of wound infection compared with epidural analgesia, new research suggests. |
 | | Patients who received epidural analgesia had a greater risk of wound infection than did patients receiving PCA (39 percent versus 15 percent, p=0.02). |
 | | The two groups had similar quality of pain control at rest, need for extra analgesia, frequency of nausea and pruritus, time to ambulation, return of gastrointestinal function, and length of stay in the intensive care unit and in hospital. |
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