BACKGROUND: Epidural anaesthesia is used extensively for both intra-operative and post-operative analgesia. This prospective randomized study was conducted using opioids epidurally for post-operative analgesia. Fentanyl is a pure opioid agonist. Butorphanol tartarate which is an agonist antagonist opioid is considered safer than pure opioid agonist. Hence, we compared epidural 4mg butorphanol and epidural 100 µg fentanyl for the relief of post-operative pain. AIMS AND OBJECTIVES: To compare the

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... onset, duration, quality of analgesia, hemodynamic effects and side effects between the 2 study drugs. MATERIALS AND METHODS: 60 patients of either sex posted for elective lower abdominal and lower limb surgeries were randomly divided into 2 groups of 30 each.