Articles: analgesia.
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Anesthesia and analgesia · Dec 1988
Epidural morphine delivered by a percutaneous epidural catheter for outpatient treatment of cancer pain.
Twenty-three outpatients with cancer pain refractory to other methods of pain control were treated with epidural morphine (EM) delivered through a chronically placed percutaneous lumbar epidural catheter. Patients and their families were taught to administer EM at home. ⋯ There were no catheter-related infections or cases of respiratory depression. After 2500 patient treatment days, we have found this method to be a safe and effective method of cancer pain management in outpatients.
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Since the ban of phenacetin and barbiturates in analgesics, caffeine as a constituent of analgesics has recently more often been blamed for promoting the abuse of analgesics. The available relevant literature was reviewed to perform a benefit/risk analysis. The results were as follows. ⋯ This however might cause a higher and unpredictable risk (e.g., gastrointestinal bleeding) with proper use in exchange for of a reduction in the predictable risk with misuse or abuse. This would raise major ethical and legal issues. Minimizing one special risk does not automatically reduce the overall risk.