Introduction
Epidural analgesia (EA) is an effective measure to treat post-operative pain. EA and intravenous patient controlled analgesia (i.v.-PCA) is deemed to represent gold-standards of post-operative pain- management [1,2]. Concerning the incidence of opioid-related side effects and dynamic pain reduc- tion, EA is frequently regarded superior to i.v.-PCA techniques [3,4]. Application of modern periop- erative treatment protocols which aim for early rehabilitation (‘‘fast track’’) is more effective with EA [5,6]. Especially after abdominal surgery EA con- tributes to a shortened hospital-stay [5,7]. This illustrates that EA has significant economic impact, hence adequate quality concerning application and maintenance of this anaesthesiological measure is a necessity [8].
However, our daily acute pain service routine drew a picture far beyond this ideal, because EA treatment frequently raised problems which regu- larly led to its undeliberate interruption.
Therefore this prospective study analysed the incidence and reasons for premature termination of post-operative EA in a University Hospital setting. Our main objective was to increase the percentage of patients that receive EA treatment up to the end of the predetermined duration of administration.