• Linda Papa, Lindsay Maguire, Mark Bender, Michael Boyd, Sagar Patel, and Ivan Samcam.
• Department of Emergency Medicine, Orlando Regional Medical Center, 86 W Underwood, Orlando, FL 32806, United States of America; Department of Neurology and Neurosurgery, McGill University, 3801 Rue University, Montreal, Quebec H3A 2B4, Canada. Electronic address: lpstat@aol.com.
• Am J Emerg Med. 2022 Jan 1; 51: 228-238.

BackgroundThe most common presenting complaint to the emergency department (ED) is pain. Several studies have shown that a large proportion of ED patients either receive no or sub-optimal analgesia. Patient-controlled analgesia (PCA) pumps used in the post-operative setting has shown to decrease total opioid consumption and has increased patient and nurse satisfaction.ObjectiveThe purpose of this systematic review was to evaluate clinical trials that have used PCAs in the ED setting, to evaluate safety and efficacy as well as patient and healthcare provider experience.MethodsA search of PubMed, MEDLINE, and the Cochrane Database was conducted using the MESH search terms emergency department, patient-controlled analgesia, and acute pain up to September 2021. These terms were searched in all fields of publication and were limited to the English-language articles, clinical "human" studies, and studies that included the use of patient-controlled analgesia in the setting of the emergency department.ResultsThe search initially identified 227 potentially relevant articles and a total of 10 studies met criteria for inclusion. ED use of PCA therapy was associated with increased patient satisfaction, decreased pain scores, and an overall increase in opioid consumption.ConclusionThe quality, the differences in study methods and outcome measures used, and heterogeneity of the studies performed to date do not provide adequate evidence to support its widespread use in the ED. Well-designed studies conducted in the ED are still needed to evaluate the ideal patient population to whom these PCAs may provide the most benefit as well as a robust cost-analysis to ensure feasibility of use in the future.Copyright © 2021 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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