The purpose of this study is to try to improve the medications we give to patients to help with their pain after surgery. Many positive changes have been made over the years, but there remains room for improvement. Lumbar spine surgery allows for easy access to the intrathecal space (the fluid around the spinal cord, or CSF) where medications can be given to directly work on pain receptors in the spinal cord. We know that two medications, morphine and clonidine, can be helpful for pain relief when given into the CSF. Our hypothesis is that adding clonidine and morphine together may offer better pain control than just morphine alone. We hope this study will give us more pain-control options for patients having spine surgery.
