The impact of long-lasting preemptive epidural analgesia before total hip replacement on the hormonal stress response. A prospective, randomized, double-blind study.

Unlabelled: Recent studies suggest that preemptive analgesia may be effective in reducing postoperative pain. One physiologic explanation may be interference with the endogenous opioid response. We investigated whether long-lasting preoperative preemptive analgesia may have an effect on the hormonal stress response after total hip replacement.