Rectus sheath catheters reduce opiate use in pancreaticoduodenectomy: a pre- and postintervention cohort study.

Background: Pancreaticoduodenectomy is the only curative option for patients with pancreatic cancer; however, pain remains a considerable problem postoperatively. With many centres moving away from using epidural analgesia, there is the need to evaluate alternative opiate sparing techniques for postoperative analgesia. We sought to determine if rectus sheath catheters (RSCs) had an opiate sparing and analgesic effect compared with standard care alone (opiate analgesia).