The Effect of Epidural Versus General Anesthesia on Postoperative Pain and Analgesic Requirements in Patients Undergoing Radical Prostatectomy

Although preemptive analgesia has been shown to decrease postinjury pain in animals, studies in humans have provided controversial results. The authors studied whether surgical epidural anesthesia with local anesthetics could affect postoperative pain and analgesic demands, when compared with general anesthesia.Male patients scheduled for radical retropubic prostatectomy were randomly assigned to receive epidural anesthesia only (EA, n = 34),...