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Evidence suggests that regional anesthesia can attenuate the adverse effects of surgery — it can, for example, prevent neuroendocrine response and lessen need for opioid analgesia, which impairs immune function. Does adding regional anesthesia to general anesthesia improve surgical outcomes? In this trial, investigators compared the effect of epidural block plus general anesthesia to that of general anesthesia alone on survival in patients who underwent potentially curative surgery for various gastrointestinal, hepatobiliary, and genitourinary cancers.
About 500 patients at 23 hospitals in Australia, New Zealand, and Asia were randomized to receive general anesthesia with or without epidural block for at least 3 postoperative days. Patients …