S. L. Zhou1, M. C. Helm1, J. H. Helm1, M. I. Goldblatt1 1Medical College Of Wisconsin,Department Of Surgery,Milwaukee, WI, USA
Introduction:
Open ventral hernia repair is a common surgical procedure with multiple options for post-operative pain control. Intravenous narcotics or epidural anesthesia are commonly used options. The primary objective of this study was to determine the morbidity and mortality associated with the use of epidurals for post-operative pain control.
Methods:
This study was a retrospective review of patients who underwent open ventral hernia repair. Data was abstracted from the National Surgical Quality Improvement Program 2015 dataset. Outpatient procedures, emergency cases, patients who did not receive mesh, or patients who remained inpatient for less than two days were excluded from analyses to identify only complex hernias.
Results:
In total, 1943 patients met inclusion criteria of which 1009 (51.93%) received any combination of non-epidural post-operative pain relief and 934 (48.07%) received an epidural. The patients who received an epidural had a higher incidence of pulmonary embolism, urinary tract infection and had a longer operative time and length of stay compared to those patients without an epidural (Table 1).
Conclusion:
The use of epidurals was associated with in an increased incidence of pulmonary embolism and urinary tract infections. In addition, epidural use was associated with an increased operative time and length of stay. The use of epidurals was not associated with an increased incidence of surgical site infections suggesting that the complexity of hernias between the groups was similar.
