Background and aims: – epidural technique has opened a new horizon to the medical profession. It is an advanced technique in modern anesthesia for relieving various types of pain such as cancer pain, laborpain,postoperative pain and pain of surgery

Method: – forty–five patients of the American society of anesthesiologists’ physical status grad II, or I scheduled for lower limb orthopedic, randomly allocated into three group–I, group–IIand group–III. Group–I, group received bupivacaine 0.5 %, 15 ml with fentanyl 50 gm. Group–II,received bupivacaine 0.5%. , 15 ml with tramadol 100 mg. Group III– received bupivacaine 0.5%, 15 ml with midazolam 2.5 mg. Single shot epidural was given of lumber region including L–3, L–4, L–5 inter spines space.Data were analyzed. The categorical data was presented as number (percent) and were compared among group using chi–square test.The quantitative data was presented as mean and standard deviation and were compared by student t–test and anova test. Probability was considered to be significant if p–value less than 0.05.

 Result:–Operation in all three groups were performed without difficulty.There were good analgesia and muscular relaxation.Pulse rate,blood pressure and respiratory rate were normal throughout the operation and postoperative period and group–II (Tramadol) showed longer duration of analgesia. Retention of urine of urine was seen in 20% of cases in group–I, 6.67% in group–II and group –III respectively and other complications were nausea, vomiting,shivering and hiccup.

Conclusion: –GROUP–II(Tramadol) showed longer duration of analgesia as compared to group III(Midazolam)and group –I(Fentanyl) patients