A comparison of thoracic or lumbar patient-controlled epidural analgesia methods after thoracic surgery

Table 4 The comparison of visual analog scale (VAS) scores at during coughing at different time points

Time (hours)	Visual Analogue Scala-Coughing		Grup TEA vs. Grup LEA (P)	The comparation intragroup of postoperative TEA (P)	The comparation intragroup of postoperative LEA (P)
Time (hours)	TEA group (n = 57)	LEA group (n = 63)	Grup TEA vs. Grup LEA (P)	The comparation intragroup of postoperative TEA (P)	The comparation intragroup of postoperative LEA (P)
Basal	7.75 ± 1.48	7.32 ± 1.52	0.114	Δ	Δ
2	5.23 ± 1.96	6.02 ± 2.07	0.035^a	< 0.0001^b	< 0.0001^c
4	4.72 ± 2.47	5.81 ± 2.7	0.023^a	< 0.0001^b	< 0.0001^c
8	3.18 ± 0.66	4.1 ± 2.09	0.002^a	< 0.0001^b	< 0.0001^c
16	3.54 ± 1.72	4.03 ± 1.78	0.029	< 0.0001^b	< 0.0001^c
24	3.21 ± 1.7	3.81 ± 2.01	0.082	< 0.0001^b	< 0.0001^c

TEA, thoracic epidural group; LEA, lumbar epidural group; Values mean ± standard deviation.
^aComparation between groups, P < 0.05.
^bComparation to basal value in Grup TEA, P < 0.05.
^cComparation to basal value in Grup LEA, P < 0.05.

ISSN: 1477-7819