Pain clinic #8. Patient-controlled analgesia for postoperative pain in orthopaedic patients.

: Patient-controlled analgesia for pain management following orthopaedic surgery was evaluated subjectively by 22 patients and 11 nurses. Half of the patients received morphine and half received meperidine. No difference was found in the amount of drug used between groups. Although pain was never completely relieved, 91% of patients experienced only mild pain or were mildly comfortable with the technique. All patients reported a high satisfaction with patient-controlled analgesia and all nurses ranked the technique as good to excellent. Eight-six percent of patients who had previously used another type of pain management ranked patient-controlled analgesia superior.