• M Zacharias, M V Pfeifer, and P Herbison.
• Department of Anaesthesia, Southland Hospital, Invercargill, New Zealand.
• Anaesth Intensive Care. 1990 May 1; 18 (2): 205-9.

AbstractMorphine sulphate was used for the control of pain following major abdominal surgery for a period of three days either as patient-controlled or continuous infusion. The two groups of patients were comparable with regard to patient and operation details, duration of infusion, pain scores and complications. The only significant difference was a reduced dose requirement of morphine in the patient-controlled analgesia group (P less than 0.005). Some possible explanations for this finding are given. It is suggested that a properly supervised continuous infusion of morphine is as good as patient-controlled administration. There was a negative correlation between the age of the patient and the dose of morphine used.

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