RESUMEN

Introduction: A meta-analysis was performed to examine the effects of wound catheter (WC) local anaesthetic infiltration (LAI) and epidural analgesia (EA) in open hepatectomy (OH). Material and methods: A systematic literature review was performed, which found 350 subjects with OH at the baseline of the studies; 159 of them were treated with WC local anaesthetic infiltration, and 191 used EA. Results: WC LAI substantially reduced the functional recovery time (MD = -0.64; 95% CI, -1.02 to -0.26, p < 0.001) and increased the pain score on the second postoperative day (MD = 0.25; 95% CI: 0.10-0.40, p < 0.001) compared to EA in OH patients. WC LAI did not vary from EA in OH patients in second postoperative opiate use (MD = -14.86; 95% CI: -32.88 to 3.16, p = 0.11) or overall complication rate (OR = 0.66; 95% CI: 0.41-1.04, p = 0.07). Conclusions: WC LAI showed a non-significant difference in opiate consumption on the second postoperative day and in the overall complication rate, compared with EA, but it showed a lower functional recovery time and higher pain score.