THE ADDITION OF OPIOIDS TO LOCAL-ANESTHETICS IN BRACHIAL-PLEXUS BLOCK- THE COMPARATIVE EFFECTS OF MORPHINE, BUPRENORPHINE AND SUFENTANIL

We compared the duration of analgesia produced by a mixture of lignoca ine and bupivacaine, either alone or combined with morphine 1/5 mu g.k g(-1), buprenorphine (3 mu g.kg(-1)) or sufentanil (0.2 mu g.kg(-1)) i n 80 patients after brachial plexus block for orthopaedic surgery of t he upper limb. The characteristics of analgesia were evaluated hourly using a visual analogue scare. The analgesia was considered satisfacto ry for scores of 30 or less. The median duration (range) of satisfacto ry analgesia was: 11.5 (8-15) h without an opioid, 21 (9-27)h with mor phine, 20 (14-34)h with buprenorphine and 24.5 (11-38) h with sufentan il. We conclude that the addition of an opioid to a local anaesthetic mixture lengthens thr duration of analgesia.