Articles: opioid-analgesics.
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Narcotics are used in neuro-anesthesiology according to their pharmacology and their effects on cerebral physiology. New narcotics (fentanyl, sufentanil, alfentanil) fulfill the requirements of modern neurosurgical anesthesiology looking for quick awakening.
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Morphine consumption for medical purposes in Japan showed a 17-fold increase between 1979 and 1989, due to increased use in cancer pain management. This increase is a reflection of the improving attitude of the health care professionals and health policy makers towards narcotics use. The WHO Cancer Pain Relief Programme has ultimately become the basis for a national cancer pain relief programme. The Ministry of Health and Welfare amended the Narcotics and Psychotropics Control Law in 1990, to improve accessibility of morphine preparations to cancer patients with pain, and edited four manuals for palliative care, that include guidelines on cancer pain relief, and legislative management of narcotics use in hospital, clinic and pharmacy.
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Comparative Study
Electroencephalographic quantitation of opioid effect: comparative pharmacodynamics of fentanyl and sufentanil.
The authors compared the pharmacodynamics of sufentanil with those of fentanyl using the electroencephalogram (EEG) as a measure of opioid drug effect. Sixteen patients were given a rapid infusion of sufentanil (18.75 micrograms/min) during EEG recording. To quantitate the opioid-induced slowing of the EEG, the authors analyzed its power spectrum and calculated the spectral edge. ⋯ The time from injection to 50% maximal EEG slowing (T50) was calculated for each patient. The values for T50 for the two groups did not differ. The authors conclude that fentanyl and sufentanil have similar pharmacodynamic profiles, the former being 12 times more potent than the latter.
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Cahiers d'anesthésiologie · Jan 1991
Review[Secondary effects of opioids administered by the regional route].
The administration of narcotics in the subarachnoid or the epidural space is gaining acceptance for postoperative pain relief. However, the potential side effects of intrathecal and epidural use of opioids are the following: early and late respiratory depression, pruritus, nausea and vomiting, urinary retention. ⋯ Naloxone can be used to reverse the depression. Pruritus can occur in 10 to 30% of patients receiving morphine; 10 to 30% nausea and vomiting, and urinary retention occurs in 20 to 50% of patients.