• Jay S Grider, Mark A Etscheidt, Michael E Harned, Jason Lee, Ben Smith, Christina Lamar, and Anjum Bux.
• Division of Pain Medicine, Department of Anesthesiology, University of Kentucky College of Medicine, Lexington, KY, USA.
• Neuromodulation. 2016 Feb 1; 19 (2): 206-19.

ObjectiveTo evaluate low-dose intrathecal opioid trialing and maintenance with regard to analgesia and psychometric functional capacity.Materials And MethodsProspective cohort of subjects offered, trialed and maintained using low-dose opioid therapy via an intrathecal drug delivery system. Analgesia, measured by visual analog scale and the Global Pain Scale, and function, measured by Multidimensional Pain Inventory and Global Pain Scale, are evaluated. Population analysis by age, gender, oral opioid dose, diagnosis, and pain type is reported.ResultsFifty-eight subjects enrolled in the 36-month evaluation period with mean opioid intrathecal opioid dose less than 350 μg per day of morphine equivalent utilized. Primary nociceptive pain type were associated with lower intrathecal opioid doses and improved visual analog scale pain rating and improved pain severity and interference on the Multidimensional Pain Inventory.ConclusionsThis study adds to the growing body of literature suggesting that low-dose intrathecal analgesia without oral opioid supplementation can be efficacious. It appears that this approach may achieve analgesia with lower doses in those with primary nociceptive pain type.© 2015 International Neuromodulation Society.

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