Background: Nowadays, epidural morphine is commonly used in postoperative pain con- trol. But epidural morphine may produce some side-effects, e.g. pruritus, nausea, vomiting, urinary retention and respiratory depression. Especially, pruritus is the most common com- plaint in pain-controlled patients by epidural morphine. So we evaluated whether addition of epidural butorphanol affects the degree of pruritus and pain score in pain controlled pa- tients who by epidural morphine after hysterectomy. Methods: Group l(N=15) received postoperative epidural 0.1% bupivacaine 100ml plus morphine 10mg, group 2(N=15) received the mixture of butorphanol 2mg with same re- gime as in group 1, group 3(N=15) received the mixture of butorphanol 4mg with same re- gime as in group l. All of the three groups received these solutions by infusion pump, l ml /hour, for postoperative 4 days. All groups received additional morphine 1.2 mg in 0.2% bupivacaine 6 ml epidurally when the peritoneum was closed under general anesthesia. The severity of pain, pruritus, nausea and vomiting was estimated by 10cm VAS(visual ana- logue scale) and somnolence by positive or negative during postoperative 4 days. Results: Severity of pruritus, but not nausea and vomiting was decreased in group 2 and 3 compared with group 1(p<0.05). Pain score was increased in group 3 at postoperative day (POD) 0 and 2 compared with group 1(p<0.05). Incidence of somnolence in group 1, 2 and 3 were 2.7±0.7, 5.3±0.7 and 10.0±1.0 respectively. Conclusions: These results suggest that butorphanol reduce the degree of pruritus, the most common side effect of morphine, but increase the incidence of somnolence.