Comparison of patient-controlled epidural analgesia and patient-controlled intravenous analgesia after spinal fusion surgery: a meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials

Low back pain (LBP) is an increasing clinical complaint in modern society; the condition affects up to 80 % of the population during their lifetime [1]. LBP is known to be associated with degenerative spinal diseases [2] such as lumbar disc herniation [3], lumbar spondylolisthesis [4], and adolescent idiopathic scoliosis [5]. Spinal fusion has been applied in the treatment of various degenerative spinal diseases [6]. Furthermore, this trend is being further enhanced owing to the development of surgical techniques and spinal instrumentation. Spinal fusion aims to alleviate pain by eliminating the painful spinal motion segments. Many patients who receive successful spinal fusion surgery obtain good outcomes [7‐9].

However, major spinal surgeries involving spinal fusion cause severe postoperative pain, which most often lasts for the first three postoperative days [10, 11]. Because postoperative pain control is difficult and complex, it is an important aspect of patient care after spinal fusion [12, 13]. Apfelbaum et al. [14] reported that more than 70 % of patients experienced moderate to severe postoperative pain, and almost 25 % of patients had adverse effects with postoperative analgesia. Effective postoperative analgesia could not only improve patients’ satisfaction, but also reduce the incidence of postoperative complications and shorten the length of hospitalization [15, 16]. A multimodal approach is used for pain management, including patient-controlled intravenous analgesia (PCIA), patient-controlled epidural analgesia (PCEA), opioid medication, benzodiazepines, and oral acetaminophen.

PCEA plays a direct role in the near operative region, so the analgesic effect of PCEA is clear and fast. PCIA acts on a systemic level via intravenous analgesia drugs, so the analgesic effect of PCIA lasts substantially longer. Although both forms of analgesia are often used in spinal fusion, controversies over their efficacy and safety still exist. For patients who undergo spinal fusion, there are no systematic studies or reviews determining the difference between PCEA and PCIA. The purpose of the present meta-analysis is to compare the efficacy and safety of PCEA versus PCIA in patients with spinal fusion surgery from randomized controlled trials (RCTs).

Patients’ postoperative satisfaction and functional recovery determine the overall efficacy of spinal fusion surgery. Effective analgesia can reduce or even eliminate pain so that patients achieve better results after rehabilitation. Therefore, it is imperative to choose the appropriate postoperative pain management strategy [25, 26]. The most important findings of the present meta-analysis are that the application of PCEA does not more effectively relieve in three postoperative day pain as compared to PCIA, meanwhile increasing the incidence of some complications such as pruritus and paresthesia.

Eight RCTs were reviewed in the current meta-analysis. Although the quality of the included studies was relatively high, there were still methodological weaknesses which should be taken into consideration. The blinding of four studies was not adequate; thus, detection bias may influence the results. Complete baseline data was shown in all literature. Due to the small sizes of the included studies, reviewers failed to conduct subgroup analysis to find the source of heterogeneity, though there was significant heterogeneity in some outcomes between groups.

Present meta-analysis showed that the analgesic effect on patients in the PCEA group was better than that in the PCIA group on the first and second postoperative days, but there was no significant difference in the analgesic effect on the two groups on the third postoperative day. Although there were significant differences in VAS score between two groups at the first and second postoperative day, the MD and 95 % CI were very small (MD = −0.47, 95 % CI:−0.74 to−0.20 and MD = −0.66, 95 % CI:−1.14 to−0.19 respectively). The extreme of the 95 % CI and this little MD were thus quite unlikely to be the actual difference between PCEA and PCIA. We should consider these when analysing the present findings. There was no difference in analgesic effect between PCEA and PCIA group at third postoperative day. There was no substantial difference of pain-relief between the PCEA and PCIA or at least that the demonstrated difference of pain relieve associated with two analgesic methods was so small that it could not be clinically relevant. These results were not consistent with some researches [27, 28]. In theory, PCEA seems to be an ideal method for postoperative pain control; it could be demonstrated to have a better postoperative analgesic effect in many common operations such as abdominal and gynecological surgeries [29, 30]. PCEA could possess a more immediate analgesic mechanism, thus reducing the use of opioids [21].

The diagnosis of patients received spinal fusion included scoliosis and other spinal degenerative diseases such as lumbar spondylolisthesis and lumbar spinal stenosis. The results demonstrated that there was a higher incidence of pruritus and paresthesia in patients with PCEA than those with PCIA (RR = 1.53, 95 % CI: 1.08 to 2.61, P =0.02 and RR = 3.34, 95 % CI: 1.12 to 9.98, P =0.03 respectively). But there was no significant difference in nausea and vomiting experienced between the PCEA and PCIA groups (RR = 1.05, 95 % CI: 0.79 to 1.40, P =0.74 and RR = 0.80, 95 % CI: 0.48 to 1.31, P =0.37 respectively). Nausea and vomiting are common side effects in the process of analgesic therapy [31]. Lumbar spinal stenosis could potentially increase the risk of patients with PCEA-induced paresthesia and motor palsy. Kluba study [19] and Fisher study [22] demonstrated that there was significantly higher incidence of paresthesia compared with the other studies. The use of postoperative PCEA should be cautious after the treatment of lumbar spinal stenosis and lumbar spondylolisthesis with spinal surgery. Only one study demonstrated that there were no significant differences between groups in VAS pain scores, side effects, or time to resumption of liquid intake between PCEA and PCIA [20], and the ages of patients in that study were lower than those of patients in other studies.

Ethnicity, age and genetics could influence the response to morphine; adverse reactions to analgesic drugs could be different [32]. Some reviews demonstrated that intravenous acetaminophen had no effect on gastrointestinal motility, renal function or bone healing [33]. In future research, subjects should be of similar age in order to reduce age bias.

It is imperative to acknowledge several potential limitations in our meta-analysis: (1) For the particularity of the clinical operation, the sample size of each trial was relatively small; (2) There were some differences in postoperative analgesia drugs and dosages; (3) There were some methodological weakness in all included RCTs. Because of the above defects and deficiencies, the pooled estimates should be explained with caution.

After spinal fusion, the patients with PCEA have similar analgesic efficacy during the three postoperative days and a higher incidence of pruritus and paresthesia than those with PCIA. Due to the limited quality and data of the evidence currently available, more high-quality randomized controlled trials are required.