Which is better, epidural or patient-controlled analgesia for pain control after surgery?

Epidural: Epidural without a doubt as long as you have a working epidural.

Both!: There is a relatively novel form of perioperative pain relief known as patient-controlled epidural analgesia(or pcea). It's similar to pca in that you as the patient control how much medication you receive. However, instead of the medication being delivered to your veins, it's delivered to your epidural space, where it is more effective and less likely to produce systemic side effects.