Association of an acute pain service with postoperative outcomes following pancreaticoduodenectomy

The aim of this retrospective study was to evaluate the effect of implementing the combination of thoracic epidural analgesia and multimodal analgesia by a dedicated acute pain service on opioid consumption and postoperative outcomes in patients undergoing pancreaticoduodenectomy. Opioid consumption during postoperative days 0–3 was compared in the acute pain service versus non-acute pain service cohort. Between matched cohorts, the median (quartiles) total opioid consumption during postoperative days 0–3 was 114mg morphine equivalents (54.7, 212.4mg morphine equivalents) in the non-acute pain service cohort and 47.4mg morphine equivalents (38.1, 100.8mg morphine equivalents) in the acute pain service cohort; the median difference was 44.8mg morphine equivalents (95% CI 14.2–90.2mg morphine equivalents, p = 0.002). The median difference in hospital length of stay was 2.0 days (95% confidence interval 0.8–4.0, p = 0.01), favouring the acute pain service cohort. A dedicated acute pain service implementing thoracic epidural analgesia in conjunction with multimodal analgesia was associated with decreased opioid consumption and hospital length of stay.