Articles: acute-pain.
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Acta Anaesthesiol Scand · Oct 2019
Observational StudySubanesthetic ketamine infusions for the management of pediatric pain in non-critical care settings: An observational analysis.
Guidelines issued by the American Society of Regional Anesthesia and Pain Medicine suggest that ketamine infusions for acute pain management are advantageous as a primary treatment or as an opioid adjunct. Despite significant data regarding its use in adult patients, there remains a paucity of information related to its quality and side effect profile in pediatrics and how it can be effectively used. We aimed to summarize our practice of utilizing ketamine for pediatric pain management in non-critical care settings. ⋯ Ketamine can effectively be used as part of a multimodal analgesic regimen in pediatric patients in non-critical care settings. Our five-year experience using low-dose ketamine infusions highlights an acceptable side effect profile, with no attributable escalations in care or serious adverse events.
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Why is this important?
Buprenorphine (Subutex, Tamgesic, Suboxone, Norspan) is a partial opioid agonist with high mu-receptor affinity, though limited by a ceiling effect. Because of its favourable safety profile it is used for opioid dependence, chronic and, increasingly, acute pain.1
Patients historically often have regular buprenorphine (BUP) ceased post-operatively when needing opioid analgesia. It was assumed that because of it’s high mu-receptor affinity, BUP blocks the efficacy of additional opioid analgesics. In reality, ceasing buprenorphine creates more complexity and may precipitate acute withdrawal.
Be smart
Haber, DeFries & Martin point out that despite the high receptor affinity of BUP, there are still additional receptors remaining for full-agonist opioids to bind and activate. This is supported by the literature (Kornfeld 2010 & Harrison 2018). Even in the post-operative period buprenorphine can be easily continued, although with patients sometimes needing higher doses of acute opioid analgesics (Goel 2019 & Hansen 2016).
“Temporarily discontinuing buprenorphine introduces unnecessary complexity to a hospitalization, places the patient at risk of exacerbation of pain, opioid withdrawal...“
Bottom-line
If buprenorphine is regularly being taken then it should not be ceased for hospital admission. Additional short-acting opioids can be added if needed. Doses required may be higher, but this is primarily due to opioid tolerance rather than receptor competition with BUP. Alternatively, a maintenance BUP dose can be split into 3-4 divided doses and/or increased to cover acute analgesic needs.
summary
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Buprenorphine is also a kappa and delta receptor antagonist, a weak partial NOP/Nociceptin receptor agonist, and has potent local anaesthetic effects. It behaves as a full agonist for analgesia in the opioid-naive, but a partial agonist for respiratory depression. ↩
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Anesthesia and analgesia · Oct 2019
Meta AnalysisSide Effect Rates of Opioids in Equianalgesic Doses Via Intravenous Patient-Controlled Analgesia: A Systematic Review and Network Meta-analysis.
Why is this important?
Despite growth of regional and non-opioid analgesic options, opioids remain the mainstain of peri-operative management of moderate to severe pain. IV patient-controlled analgesia (PCA) is a safe, common and reliable delivery mechanism.
What did they do?
Dinges et al. performed a network meta-analysis of 63 studies covering 16 different PCA opioids, comparing side-effects at equianalgesic doses. Morphine was used as the baseline comparator.
And they found?
Although there were some small difference in the incidence of nausea & vomiting (fentanyl having lowest N&V risk, buprenorphine highest) and pruritus (nalbuphine, butorphanol, methadone, and pethidine/meperidine resulting in least pruritis), there were significant differences for sedation and satisfaction.
Pethidine/meperidine, fentanyl & oxymorphone showed the lowest sedation scores, although respiratory depression events were too infrequent to show differences. Oxycodone, alfentanil, remifentanil, fentanyl & pethidine/meperidine resulted in the highest patient satisfaction and tramadol was the least satisfying.
Take-home message
Although some PCA-opioids perform better than others in small ways, overall side-effect profiled are very similar and comparably safe. Oxycodone, alfentanil and remifentanil however result in significantly higher patient satisfaction.
The big picture...
Rather than focusing on the small differences among opioids, there is almost certainly more to be gained by a disciplined, multi-modal analgesic focus that reduces opioid use and thus side-effects.
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Randomized Controlled Trial Comparative Study
Comparison of Oral Ibuprofen at Three Single-Dose Regimens for Treating Acute Pain in the Emergency Department: A Randomized Controlled Trial.
Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) are used extensively for the management of acute pain, with ibuprofen being one of the most frequently used oral analgesics in the emergency department (ED). We compare the analgesic efficacy of oral ibuprofen at 3 different doses for adult ED patients with acute pain. ⋯ Oral ibuprofen administered at doses of 400, 600, and 800 mg has similar analgesic efficacy for short-term pain relief in adult patients presenting to the ED with acute pain.
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Curr Opin Anaesthesiol · Oct 2019
ReviewCan recent chronic pain techniques help with acute perioperative pain?
This article discussed how the knowledge and technique of a few chronic pain procedures benefited the perioperative clinicians in their care of patients receiving specific orthopaedic surgical procedures. ⋯ Despite the widespread use of regional anaesthesia and multimodal analgesia in the perioperative pain management, more than two-third of the patients reported severe postoperative pain. Therefore, other therapeutic strategies used in chronic pain management such as radiofrequency ablation and neuromodulation have been proposed to optimize acute postsurgical pain. The early experience with those techniques is encouraging, and more studies are required to explore the incorporation of these procedures in the perioperative care.