Determinants of patient-controlled epidural analgesia requirements: a prospective analysis of 1753 patients.

Objectives: Patient-controlled epidural analgesia (PCEA) has been widely used in postoperative pain management. Many factors may correlate with PCEA requirements but no previous study has ever investigated this subject. Therefore, we conducted this study to explore the relationship among patients' characteristics and total PCEA consumption during the 3-day postoperative course.

Anesthesia--past, present and future.

In 1680 Sydenham wrote, "Among the remedies which has pleased almighty God to give to man to relieve his sufferings, none is so universal and so efficacious as opium." This appraisal is still true today. Morphine, the principal analgesic agent of the opium alkaloids, has provided the structural model from which modern synthetic opiates have been designed and synthesized.