A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF OUTCOMES AFTER MODIFIED RADICAL MASTECTOMY DONE UNDER THORACIC EPIDURAL vs. GENERAL ANAESTHESIA

BACKGROUND earlier days General Anaesthesia (GA) was the choice for MRM, but recently Thoracic Epidural (TE) analgesia is being used for MRM. TE technique has a lot of advantages over the conventional GA technique. AND METHODS 100 patients with carcinoma breast are divided into two groups- Thoracic Epidural (TE) and General Anaesthesia (GA) of 50 each. Four patients in TE group were converted to GA in view of patient’s anxiety during surgery. All the intraoperative heart rate, blood pressure, bleeding and postoperative outcomes, seroma formation, drains, wound infection rates, necrosis and hospital stay are recorded. demographic data showed no differences between both groups. During the intraoperative period, hypertension and were more frequent in GA group while hypotension and bradycardia more in TE group, which was statistically (p value <0.05). In the immediate postoperative period, nausea and vomiting were more in GA group (31%) than in group (8.6%), which was statistically significant (p value 0.01). Also, pain scores were more in GA group than in TE group. infection rates, seroma incidence, flap necrosis, length of hospital stay and hospital costs were less in TE group than GA . of thoracic epidural technique as a sole anaesthetic technique for MRM surgeries provides adequate operating conditions, side effect profile, better pain management, less postoperative complications, early ambulation, early drain removal and discharge from the hospital.