Analysis of 1,590 Patients of IV-PCA for Postoperative Pain Management

Song, Sun Ok; Jee, Dae Lim; Koo, Bon Up

Abstract

BACKGROUND: We started postoperative pain management service using an intravenous patient-controlled analgesia (IV-PCA, PCA), which is known as convenient and effective analgesic method. In this report, we describe the efficacy and safety of PCA and the experience of developing an acute pain service to treat postoperative pain using a PCA.
METHODS
Practices of an acute pain service were started at a ward for general surgery after preparation of the standardized protocols for PCA. In each patient, PCA was connected following administration o;. initial loading doses of analgesics at recovery room after operation. All patients were checked by acute pain service team once or twice daily. The scope of acute pain service was gradually spread to other departments such as orthopedic, thoracic, obstetric and gynecologic departments by requests of patients or surgeons. We managed 1,590 patients during first 22 months. Among them, nine hundred seventy two cases were prospectively evaluated for their analgesic efficacy and side effects of PCA.
RESULTS
The number of patients was increased day by day. The most common type of operation was gastrectomy (21.6%). Cominonly used analgesics were nalbuphine (59%) and morphine (37%,). The mean duration of PCA attachment was 3.3 days. The degree of analgesia on operation day was good in 44.8#k and tolerable in 52.6% of patients. Only 3.9% of patients complained severe pain during their postoperative periods. One elderly patient experienced respiratory depression (0.06%) owing to accidental misuse of PCA by his relatives. Overall patient's satisfaction was over 93%.
CONCLUSIONS
According to our experiences, we conclude that PCA is an effective, relatively safe and highly satisfactory method for postoperative pain management. Because of these advantages of PCA, the creation of our acute pain service using a PCA was successful and expanded rapidly.