Drug intelligence & clinical pharmacy
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Drug Intell Clin Pharm · Apr 1986
Patient-controlled analgesia in the terminally ill cancer patient.
Patient-controlled analgesia (PCA) is a relatively new therapeutic modality which has allowed postsurgical patients to safely and effectively self-administer doses of intravenous narcotics via a syringe pump and sequencing device. A pilot study was designed to evaluate PCA's safety and effectiveness in the terminally ill cancer patient. Eight patients whose chronic pain was not adequately controlled by oral narcotics were permitted to use PCA for a minimum of 48 hours. ⋯ Pain and sedation rankings were similar to those registered while exclusively on PCA. This self-dosing technique was judged to be safe, effective, and able to accommodate wide fluctuations in analgesic need when treating pain in the terminally ill cancer patient. The results obtained in these patients support further trials using PCA to individualize oral analgesic regimens.