• B Roquefeuil, J Benezech, C Batier, P Blanchet, C Gros, and J C Mathieu-Daude.
• Neurochirurgie. 1983 Jan 1; 29 (2): 135-41.

AbstractIntractable pain in 4 patients having disseminated cancer was treated by intraventricular morphine. For all these patients, previous efficiency of opiates therapy was assessed by a positive trial of epidural injections of morphine. The latter method had to be stopped and a switch to intraventricular morphine was motivated, in 3 cases, by a local non-tolérance to the subarachnoid catheter. In one case, an intraventricular system was inserted at the first onset. In all cases, the intraventricular system consisted of a "Holter" type device, using a reservoir implanted subcutaneously in the frontal scalp and connected at right-angle with a catheter inserted in the lateral ventricle. Trial times were respectively of 8 days, one month, two months and six months (this latter case still under trial). In comparison with the epidural and lumbar intrathecal administration of morphine, the authors insisted upon the quality of analgesia obtained, the absence of respiratory depression, the comfort and minimal daily quantities of morphine injected (inferior to one mg daily in three cases). Enlightened by these 4 cases, the authors also discussed the relative importance of the spinal and brain mechanisms involved in morphinic analgesia.

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