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Patient Controlled Analgesia (PCA): Clinical Experience

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Anaesthesia, Pain, Intensive Care and Emergency Medicine — A.P.I.C.E.

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Abstract

Conventional management of acute postoperative pain with intermittent intramuscular administration of fixed doses of drugs usually fails to produce adequate analgesia for a variety of reasons (1-4):

  • Delay between patient’s request and need satisfaction by the nurse

  • Drug absorption rate from intramuscular depots

  • Opioids underprescription for fear of side-effects, mainly respiratory depression

  • Wide interpatient variability of analgesic need, related to marked differences of pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic factors

  • Subjectivity of pain experience that makes difficult the use of any assessment index

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Authors
  1. A. Pasetto
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  2. A. M. Varutti
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  3. V. Bonfreschi
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  4. F. Colò
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Anaesthesiology and Intensive Care, Trieste University School of Medicine, Trieste, Italy

    Antonino Gullo M.D. (Head) (Head)

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© 1996 Springer-Verlag Italia, Milano

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Pasetto, A., Varutti, A.M., Bonfreschi, V., Colò, F. (1996). Patient Controlled Analgesia (PCA): Clinical Experience. In: Gullo, A. (eds) Anaesthesia, Pain, Intensive Care and Emergency Medicine — A.P.I.C.E.. Springer, Milano. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-88-470-2203-4_70

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-88-470-2203-4_70

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Milano

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-540-75014-7

  • Online ISBN: 978-88-470-2203-4

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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