• Alejandro Cardozo, Carlos Silva, Luis Dominguez, Beatriz Botero, Paulo Zambrano, and Jose Bareno.
• Emergency Department, Clinica Las Vegas, Medellin, Colombia.
• World J Emerg Med. 2014 Jan 1; 5 (4): 275-8.

BackgroundMild to moderate musculoskeletal trauma is a common cause for an emergency room visit, and frequent pain is one of the cardinal symptoms of consultation. The objective of this study is to assess the perception of a single subcutaneous dose of 50 mg tramadol for pain management in patients with mild to moderate musculoskeletal trauma, likewise to appraise the perception of pain by subcutaneous injection.MethodsA total of 77 patients, who met inclusion criteria, received a single subcutaneous dose of tramadol. Pain control was evaluated based on the verbal numerical pain scale (0-10) at baseline, 20 and 60 minutes; similarly, pain perception was evaluated secondary to subcutaneous injection of the analgesic.ResultsOn admission, the average pain perceived by patients was 8; twenty minutes later, 89% of the patients reported five or less, and after sixty minutes, 94% had three or less on the verbal numerical pain scale. Of the patients, 88% reported pain perception by verbal numeric scale of 3 or less by injection of the drug, and 6.5% required a second analgesic for pain control. Two events with drug administration (soft tissue infection and mild abdominal rectus injection) were reported.ConclusionWe conclude that a single subcutaneous dose of tramadol is a safe and effective option for the management of patients with mild to moderate pain and musculoskeletal disease in the emergency department.

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