Among the commoner and more beneficial surgical procedures of this century there is none that consistently produces greater postoperative pain than hemorrhoidectomy. Despite improved techniques with carefully performed dissections and well-placed sutures, postoperative pain control is by no means simple. We have employed most of the so-called long-lasting injectable anesthetic agents in the perianal tissues of large numbers of patients, only to give up this approach because of complications and the frequent finding that in most cases narcotics were necessary after all.
In selecting injectable agents for early postoperative pain control dihydromorphinone (Dilaudid) hydrochloride U. S. P. seemed to offer less side-reactions than did morphine. With the advent of meperidine (Demerol) hydrochloride still more side-reactions were eliminated; yet dihydromorphinone was not discarded from our armamentarium because in certain patients it gave greater pain relief than did meperidine. Seeking to find a pain suppressant that would provide the needed sustained relief