Morphine with Bupivacaine versus Bupivacaine Only in Caudal Analgesia in Pediatrics Undergoing Hernia Repair

Abstract

Pain is one of the most misunderstood, underdiagnosed, and untreated medical problems, particularly in children. New Joint Commission on Accreditation of Health Care Organization regards pain as fifth vital sign and requires caregivers to regularly assess pain. Inadequate pain relief during childhood may have long-term negative effects including harmful neuroendocrine responses, disrupted eating and sleep cycles and increased pain perception during subsequent painful experiences. Postoperative pain can result in an uncooperative and restless child. Hence, it is preferable to prevent the onset of pain rather than to relieve its existence Caudal analgesia remains the most popular and commonly used regional block in paediatric anaesthesia. Bupivacaine is the most widely used local anaesthetic for this technique and provides postoperative analgesia lasting 4-8 h. It is clear that the extended duration of analgesia that can be achieved by using caudal additives is significant. Local anesthetics alone for caudal epidural block provide good operative conditions, but they have short duration of postoperative analgesia. Therefore, various