[Prospective study on anesthesia for lumbar spine surgery--the effectiveness of the perioperative epidural anesthesia with buprenorphine].

We prospectively evaluated the efficacy of perioperative epidural buprenorphine for lumbar spinal surgery under general anesthesia. Twenty-eight patients were allocated into two groups; in one group (buprenorphine group), patients underwent the surgery under general anesthesia with perioperative epidural buprenorphine 0.2 mg, in the other group (control group), patients underwent the surgery under general anesthesia only.