Double-blind comparison of intra pleural analgesia through a catheter and intra pleural analgesia through a catheter beside a chest tube

Thoracotomy is a surgical procedure associated with severe pain. Operative morbidity rates reduce by
effective postoperative pain control and the intensity of pain is exacerbated by ventilation. Thus, the goal of the
clinician is to develop an analgesic regimen that provides effective pain relief to allow post operative thoracotomy
patients the ability to maintain their functional residual capacity by deep breathing. One of these methods is
insertion of an intrapleural catheters. In this study we tried to compare the efficacy of current method with the newer
one, which is the implementation of a double lumen chest tube. The aim of this study is to compare the effectiveness
of the chest tube catheter and intrapleural catheter for pain after thoracotomy. The study was double-blind and
consisted of twenty patients undergoing thoracotomy and pulmonary mass resection (indicated because of
malignancy or hydrated cyst) in Shahid Modarres hospital(Tehran, Iran) during September 2006 to march 2007. In
our study, anesthetics did not make a difference in the 6th hour but improve pain indices in the 12th, 18th and 24th
hour (only PHS).It can be postulated that during the first hours after the surgery the pain is too severe for the
anesthetic to shoe significant improvement. Also, no significant difference was found between the routes of
administration. This study shows that pleural anesthesia through a catheter secured in a tube is more favorable to
intra pleural anesthesia through a catheter, concerning risk and surgery complications