[The effect of concurrent atherosclerosis on the permeability of the dura mater and the efficacy of epidural analgesia with morphine and dicain].

The permeability of spinal dura mater (SDM) was examined for morphine and tetracaine hydrochloride in 7 suddenly died patients with profound morphological manifestations. Atherosclerosis was found to show an average 37% increase in SDM permeability. With this, the efficiency of postoperative epidural analgesia (EA) with morphine was studied in 32 surgical patients with concurrent atherosclerosis. EA was demonstrated to be not only beneficial for this category of patients, unlike control patients, but followed by a significant decrease in respiratory center sensitivity to CO2. It was concluded that the regularities found should be taken into account during EA with narcotic analgesics in patients with concurrent atherosclerosis.