Patient Controlled Epidural Analgesia Versus Intravenous Patient Controlled Analgesia for Post-Operative Pain Control in Patients Undergoing Elective Liver Resection

Patients undergoing IV PCA for pain control will have intravenous (IV) analgesia provided through a demand pump started in the recovery room.

Patients in this group will have the epidural catheter placed by the anesthesia pain service team in the pre-surgical center (PSC) as performed routinely at MSKCC. The epidural will be used intra-operatively at the end of liver resection phase of the surgical procedure, once the specimen has been extracted, and continued subsequently in the post-operative phase for pain management.