COMPARISON OF PATIENT-CONTROLLED ANALGESIA VERSUS INTRAMUSCULAR NARCOTICS IN RESOLUTION OF POSTOPERATIVE ILEUS AFTER RADICAL RETROPUBIC PROSTATECTOMY

Patient-controlled analgesia has become standard practice after major abdominal operations. benefits of patient-controlled analgesia have be en well documented. However, its possible effect of prolonging postope rative ileus has not been well examined. To determine if patient-contr olled analgesia prolongs postoperative ileus when compared to conventi onal intramuscular narcotics, a retrospective review of length of post operative ileus in 98 consecutive patients (62 using patient-controlle d analgesia and 36 using intramuscular narcotics) undergoing bilateral pelvic lymphadenectomy and radical retropubic prostatectomy was done. The patients receiving patient-controlled analgesia resolved the post operative ileus an average of 1.0 day later than the intramuscular inj ection group (5.2 days versus 4.2 days p <0.0001). Overall hospital st ay was not significantly affected. Our results show that patient-contr olled analgesia use prolongs postoperative ileus.