Faisal Javed, Mohammad Abdul Aziz, Zia Uddin Ahmed, Mahnoor Zia.
Comparison of Time to Recovery of Gastrointestinal function following Gastrointestinal Surgery.
Pak J Med Health Sci Jan ;12(4):1351-3.

Background: Gastrointestinal tract Recovery following gastrointestinal surgery is a very important parameter to determine the outcome of gastrointestinal surgery. Gastrointestinal tract dysfunction is the commonest post- operative complication and is the cause of delayed hospital discharge. . Objective: To compare mean time for recovery of gastrointestinal function, in Thoracic Epidural Analgesia and Systemic Opioid Analgesia groups in patients undergoing gastrointestinal surgery. Study Design: Randomized controlled trial . Setting: Department of Anaesthesia, Shaukat Khanum Memorial Hospital and Research Centre, Lahore . Duration of study : 6 months . Method : 60 cases (30 cases in each group) were included in this study. Group A was given Thoracic Epidural Analgesia whereas group B patients received Systemic Opioid Analgesia . Results: Mean age was 32.76+/-5.33 in group A and 31.21+/-7.84 years in group B. In group A 22 patients (44%) and in group B 24 patients (48.0%) were male while 28 patients (56.0%) in group A and 26 patients (52%) in group B were female. Group A has shown early recovery of gastrointestinal function (time: 42.63+/-1.86 hours ) as compared to Group B (time: 79.93+/-4.73 hours ). P-value= 0.0002 was obtained that was extremely significant. Conclusion: Thoracic Epidural Analgesia provides early recovery of gastrointestinal function as compared to Systemic Opioid Analgesia in patients undergoing gastrointestinal surgery.

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