Journal of surgical oncology
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Eighty consecutive cancer patients with severe pain, uncontrolled by conventional narcotic analgesics, received a 2-mg test dose of morphine epidurally. Thirty-four of them had significant pain relief and were thus selected to receive continuous treatment. This consisted of 2-6 mg of morphine administered every 8-24 hours through an indwelling epidural catheter. ⋯ Complications were minimal. No sepsis, hypotension, or respiratory depression occurred. It is recommended that cancer patients with intractable pain will be selected for continuous epidural analgesia by evaluating their response to a test dose of epidural morphine.