• E Blanco, J Blanco, I Pedraza, and J Alvarez.
• Servicio de Anestesiología y Reanimación, Hospital General de Galicia, La Coruña.
• Rev Esp Anestesiol Reanim. 1992 May 1; 39 (3): 155-8.

IntroductionPCA (patient controlled analgesia) has represented a remarkable advance in the treatment of postoperative pain. In this work we describe our experience with this analgesic technique.Material And MethodsOne hundred patients undergoing thoracic and abdominal surgery were selected after giving information to the medical and nurse personnel. Pharmacologic agents used in this study were morphine (intravenous PCA) and fentanyl (epidural PCA). Starting of the perfusion pump was done by the anesthesiologist at the Recovery Unit and the treatment was continued by the nurse. Every morning the patients were visited and the degree of analgesia was recorded according to the following score: 1: no pain, and 5: intolerable pain. An anesthesiologist was permanently available. Later on, this study was expanded to 400 patients including other types of surgery.ResultsMean duration of the treatment was 60 hours. The amount of analgesics administered varied among patients and was greater during the first postoperative hours specially in the group of patients treated with fentanyl. The mean degree of pain was 1.5 (grade 1 in 37.5% of cases and grade 5 in 3.5% of patients). Secondary effects were only nausea and vomiting. Inconvenient features of the technique were: patient's difficulties in the management of the technique (3 cases), and spontaneous loss of the program (1 case). Patient's acceptance of the technique was good.ConclusionsPCA analgesia has been successfully introduced in our hospital since it is effective, safe, easy to manage.

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