Purpose: Spinal epimorph is commonly used as part of multimodal analgesia for patients undergoing total joint arthroplasty. Patients who receive spinal epimorph are at risk for certain post- operative complications. The purpose of this study was to determine the incidence of complications in patients undergoing total joint arthroplasty with administration of spinal epimorph compared to patients undergoing the same procedure who did not receive spinal epimorph as part of their analgesia.

Method: A retrospective chart review of 72 patients in which two age, sex and procedure matched groups were compared for differences in known spinal epimorph complications. One group received spinal epimorph as part of their analgesia while the comparative group did not receive spinal epimorph but rather continuous infusion of local analgesia. Data extraction involved foley and oxygen usage, documented nausea/vomiting and puritis, associated risk factors and complications such as prostate disease and urinary tract infections, and secondary outcome measures such as Gravol and Benadryl usage.

Results: Comparison of the two well-matched groups demonstrated that patients who received spinal epimorph had increased rates of foley insertion (p=0.0026), foley duration (p=0.015), oxygen usage (p=0.0053), documented puritis (p=0.0006) and Benadryl usage (p=0.0053). Trends towards increased nausea/vomiting (p=0.17), antiemetic use (p=0.16) and urinary tract infections (p=0.15) were seen in the spinal epimorph group, although these differences did not reach statistical significance.

Conclusion: The use of spinal epimorph as part of an analgesia protocol surrounding total joint arthroplasty is associated with increased complications and patient discomfort when compared to patients who received continuous local infiltrative analgesia. Further research is needed to determine if alternate modes of analgesia provide adequate pain relief when compared with spinal epimorph and thus provide suitable alternatives with less complications.