Failed epidural after upper abdominal laparotomy in chronic pain patients with opioid use - a retrospective… | ScholarDeck

Paper

Failed epidural after upper abdominal laparotomy in chronic pain patients with opioid use - a retrospective case control study.

New research · Anesthesiology

Scandinavian journal of pain · 1mo

Case-controlScandinavian journal of pain· Jan 2026

Failed epidural after upper abdominal laparotomy in chronic pain patients with opioid use - a retrospective case control study.

Johnny Dohn Holmgren Andersen, Iryna Khridina, Danja Lykke Kristensen … Eske Kvanner Aasvang

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Regional AnesthesiaCase-controlTreatmentQ2IF 1.8

Epidural failure occurred in 41.3% of chronic pain patients on opioids.

Failed epidural after upper abdominal laparotomy in chronic pain patients with opioid use - a retrospective case control study.

Johnny Dohn Holmgren Andersen … Eske Kvanner Aasvang

Scandinavian journal of pain · Jan 2026 · Q2 in Anesthesiology

Purpose

This study evaluated the incidence of failed epidural analgesia, defined as epidural catheter replacement, in opioid-treated chronic pain patients vs. pain-free opioid-naïve controls undergoing elective upper laparotomy.

Methods

With known illegal opioid use were excluded.

Results

41.3 %

how often epidurals needed replacing in chronic pain patients on opioids

More results

The median preoperative daily oral morphine equivalent use among chronic pain patients was 45 mg (IQR, 20-80).

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Conclusion · 1 of 2

Chronic preoperative opioid use for pain significantly increased the rate of postoperative epidural catheter replacement.

Conclusion · 2 of 2

The findings were not explained by external preoperative, technical or surgical factors, supporting further pathophysiological investigations to tailor mechanism based interventions.

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