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Relative effects of dosage, volume and concentration of local anaesthetics used for postoperative thoracic epidural analgesia are still under debate. In this randomized, prospective, double-blinded study, we evaluated the incidence of side-effects such as changes in arterial pressure, postoperative nausea, vomiting, and pruritus in patients admitted for thoracic surgery during continuous thoracic epidural infusion using levobupivacaine and sufentanil mixture in three different volumes.

We studied 150 patients who underwent thoracotomy with a thoracic epidural catheter placed between T4 and T7. The patients were randomized into three groups which received 10 mg h⁻¹ of levobupivacaine at three different concentrations (0.5%, 0.25%, and 0.15%), in combination with sufentanil at 2.6 µg h⁻¹. Haemodynamic effects, pruritus, nausea, vomiting, sensory and …