Intrathecal Morphine as an Alternative for Epidural Analgesia for Postoperative Pain in a Resource Constrained Set-up: A Case Series
Published: October 1, 2022 | DOI: https://doi.org/10.7860/JCDR/2022/55916.16867
Anil Kumar Narayan, Ajay S Shandilya, Harini Krishna
1. Professor and Head, Department of Anaesthesiology, Andaman and Nicobar Islands Institute of Medical Sciences, Port Blair, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, India.
2. Assistant Professor, Department of Anaesthesiology, Chandramma Dayananda Sagar institute of Medical Education and Research, Ramanagar, Karnataka, India.
3. Assistant Professor, Department of Anaesthesiology, Chandramma Dayananda Sagar institute of Medical Education and Research, Ramanagar, Karnataka, India.
Correspondence
Dr. Ajay S Shandilya,
Assistant Professor, Department of Anaesthesiology, Chandramma Dayananda Sagar institute of Medical Education and Research, Harohalli,
Kanakapura Taluk, Ramanagar, Karnataka, India.
E-mail: ajay.anaesthesia@gmail.com
Management of postoperative pain is a central piece in the jigsaw of postoperative care. This article reports a series of three patients who were managed with intrathecal morphine to provide postoperative analgesia, for major abdominal surgeries. Morphine was injected intrathecally before the induction of anaesthesia. The patients were pain free postoperatively, required minimal intravenous opioids on the first postoperative day. There was no incidence of postoperative nausea or vomiting, pruritus and respiratory depression. Intrathecal morphine improves the quality of postoperative analgesia, there is a reduction in pain scores in the first 24 hours after surgery and the need for rescue analgesia with intravenous opioids is less. Intrathecal morphine can be used as an alternative to continuous epidural analgesia in early postoperative period.
[
FULL TEXT ] | [ PDF]