Comparison Between Epidural Tramadol And Fentanyl For Post Operative Analgesia

AIM:To evaluate the efficacy of epidural tramadol and fentanyl for postoperative analgesia. Key words:epidural, postoperative analgesia,fentanyl,tramadol. METHODS:80 patients of ASA grade 1 and 2 aged between 18-55yrs undergoing lower abdominal and lower limb surgeries were randomly allocated into 2 groups. group 1 –received inj.tramadol 50mg, group2 -received inj.fentanyl 50µg. RESULTS:Mean onset of analgesia in group1 was 13.08±2.6min and in group2 was 5.79±1.46min. duration of analgesia in group1 mean±SD of 6.2±0.5hrs while in group 2 ranged between 3-4hrs with a mean of 3.48±0.4hrs. Side effects:Group 2 had side effects like nausea (2.5%)and vomiting(2.5%) when compared to Group 1 where 17.5% had nausea and 12.5% vomiting. CONCLUSION:Epidural fentanyl provides a rapid ,excellent but shorter duration of analgesia when compared to epidural tramadol.From our study,it appears that both epidural tramadol and epidural fentanyl have equal efficacy except duration of action which is shorter for fentanyl.