Love those epidurals for decreasing narcotic. But a lot of my attendings won't let me dose the epidural for the case (especially thoracic cases) until the end of the case, saying that you don't want to fight hypotension intraop. Doesn't make much sense to me... why not just start a pressor drip? but anyway...
To the high-dose narcotic technique... did a lap chole once giving 1000mcg fentanyl on induction to a 60 yo opioid-naive pt, average weight... just b/c my attending wanted me to see just how much fentanyl someone can take. Then ran sevo/N2O, made sure all of the gas was off at the end. Pt woke up breathing 10x/min as the dressing was being placed, following commands, extubated to the PACU. Mind you this was an academic institution where the lap chole took 1.5 hrs.
Of course, the pt was puking her guts out despite the multiple antiemetic prophylactics...