• The Korean Journal of Pain
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.68-73
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• 2009

Opioids profoundly inhibit evoked discharges of spinal nociceptive neurons, thereby inhibiting the transmission of pain. Intrathecal administration of opioids using implantable continuous infusion systems is an effective method of pain relief when other treatments have failed, as well as for patients with adequate analgesia on high dose therapy that produces unacceptable side effects. We report two cases of intrathecal pump implantation performed in patients suffering from intractable chronic pain. A test dose of 3 mg morphine was injected into the epidural space. No side effects were noted and patients experienced considerable pain relief. Implantation was performed one day after the test. The initial intrathecal morphine delivery dose was half of the equivalent dose of daily oral intake opioids and the infusion rate was increased gradually under close observation for opioid side effects. Two days post-implantation, both patients were discharged without any complications.

• The Korean Journal of Pain
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.54-58
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• 1999

Background: We studied 150 patients who received intravenous patient controlled analgesia (PCA) after total abdominal hysterectomy to evaluate pain relief, analgesic consumption, patient's satisfaction and side effects. Methods: We made total 40 ml of analgesic mixture with morphine 40 mg, ketorolac 120 mg, droperidol 3 mg and normal saline. Loading/bolus/basal infusion dose and lockout interval was 2 ml, 1.5 ml, 0.5 ml/hr and 10 min, respectively. Numerical rating scale (NRS) pain score, cumulative analgesic consumption, degree of satisfaction, and incidence of side effects were evaluated. Also, correlation of age and edu ion with analgesic consumption were evaluated. Results: The average pain scores using NRS were $3.1{\pm}1.7$ (6 h), $2.1{\pm}1.5$ (24 h), $1.7{\pm}1.5$ (48 h). The average cumulative analgesic consumption were $11.7{\pm}5.0$ ml (6 h), $23.0{\pm}6.7$ ml (24 h), $32.1{\pm}3.7$ ml (48 h). The degree of satisfaction in postoperative pain control was good in 94% of patients. There was no correlation between degree of satisfaction and analgesic consumption. Also age and level of edu ion did not correlated with analgesic consumption. Conclusions: Intravenous PCA with morphine, ketorolac, and droperidol is an effective method of postoperative pain control because it provides adequate pain relief and a few side effects with high patient's satisfaction. However, age and level of education did not correlated with analgesic consumption.

• The Korean Journal of Pain
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.202-207
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• 2000

Background: Superior hypogastric plexus block has been advocated as a useful technique for the treatment of cancer related pelvic pain. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of neurolytic trans-intervertebrodiscal superior hypogastric plexus block for pelvic cancer pain. Methods: Twenty-eight patients with gynecologic, colorectal or genitourinary cancer who suffered intractable pain were studied. We performed superior hypogastric plexus block by trans-intervertebrodiscal approach at L5/S1 level under the C-arm fluoroscopic guide unilaterally or bilaterally. Ten ml of 100% dehydrated alcohol was injected through each needle. We evaluated the change of visual analog pain score (VAS; 0~100 mm) and daily dose of oral morphine sulphate at the time of pre-block and 7 days after the block. Results: Fourteen patients (50%) had satisfactory pain relief (VAS<30) while five patients (18%) had moderate pain control (VAS 30~60). The remaining nine patients (32%) had mild or little pain relief (VAS>60) and their daily oral morphine doses were above 160 mg. Additional pain control method may be needed for those patients who received high dose of opioid before neurolytic block. Conclusions: We conclude trans-intervertebrodiscal neurolytic superior hypogastric plexus block was effective in relieving pelvic cancer pain. Neurolytic block, earlier stage, may provide better effects for more comfortable life at the end stage for cancer patients.

• The Korean Journal of Pain
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• v.4 no.2
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• pp.127-132
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• 1991

Recently a non-electronic, disposable and portable infusor(Baxter infusor with patient control module, Baxter health care Co., Deerfield IL 60015 USA: BI $\bar{c}$ PCM) has been developed that will deliver both a continuous drug infusion as well as allow the patient to deliver extra doses of medication on a demand basis under predetermined limitation of analgesics. Patients may also not require as high analgesic dose rate to control pain when the acceptable and tolerable level of pain relief can be maintained by this device. From April l99l, we have used a total l93 units of BI $\bar{c}$ PCM. These units consisting of two components which one made by a balloon reservoir(capacity 65 ml, flow rate 0.5 ml/hr) to store medication and to regulate the pump power(490 torr), and another two PCMs to regulate additional analgesic administration by patients demand at intervals of 1S minutes and 60 minutes. The dose administered to the patient can be varied by changing the concentration of the infusate within the balloon reservoir. These devices were utilized for the pain control of 44 patients. These patients were divided into two groups. Twenty seven cases had cancer pain and 17 cases had non-cancer pain. The Touhy needle(No. l8 G.) tip was inserted into the epidural space and was used to guide the catheter to the spinal nerve level corresponding to the most painful area. The device was connected to the opposite site of the catheter tip and was filled with 60 ml of mixture solution such as 0.5% bupivacaine 15 ml, morphine HCl 10 mg, trazodone 10 ml, Tridol 3 ml and normal saline 31 ml were administed as the initial dose. When the initial dose was less effective, the next dose could be varied by increasing the concentration of bupivacaine, by adding more morphine (5~10 mg), and by reducing the volume of normal saline. Using these modules of drug self administration, we experienced the following: 1) Improvement of patient's self titration of analgesic requirement was provided. 2) The patients anxiety with pain recurrence resulting from delays in administering pain control medication was decreased significantly. 3) The working load accompanying with the single bolus injection as the usual method was reduced remarkably. 4) There was urinary retention in 5 cases and pruritus in 4 eases which developed as side effects but respiratory depression and vomiting was not encountered in a single case.

• The Korean Journal of Pain
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.151-158
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• 1996

Background: Buprenorphine, a new synthetic thebaine derivative, is a partial agonist of the opioid $\mu$-receptor with high receptor affinity, great lipid solubility, and slow rate of opiate receptor association and dissociation. Continuous epidural infusion of opioid can possibly produced undesirable effects, such as respiratory depression, pruritus, etc, in spite of effective postoperative analgesia. Methods: The present study was undertaken to compare the analgesic properties and side effects of continuous epidural infusion of buprenorphine combined with bupivacaine, and morphine combined with bupivacaine in 90 patients following elective gynecologic lower abdominal surgery. At the end of surgery, the initial bolus doses were 3 mg morphine (M group), 0.15 mg buprenorphine (0.15B group), 0.3 mg buprenorphine (0.3B group) combined with 0.25% bupivacaine 10ml, and subsequent continuous infusion doses were 6 mg morphine plus 0.125% bupivacine 100 ml (M group) and 0.6mg buprenorphine plus 0.125% bupivacaine 100 ml (0.15B, 0.3B, group) during 48 hours. The assessment of analgesic efficacy and side effects were made at arrival of recovery room, 1 hr, 4 hr, 8 hr, 24 hr, 36 hr, and 48 hr after the epidural injection. Results: The pain score during 48 hours was significantly higher in the 0.15B group than in the M group and 0.3B group (P<0.05), and the number of patients requiring additional analgesics was significantly higher in the 0.15B group than in the M group and 0.3B group (P<0.05). Signs of respiratory depression were not noted, and the incidence of pruritus, nausea, and vomiting was slightly lower in the 0.15B group and 0.3B group than in the M group, and the incidence of sedation and urinary retention was similar in three group. The subjective rating of satisfaction was better in the 0.3B group than in the M group and 0.15B group (P<0.05). Conclusion: The above results suggest that continuous epidural infusion of buprenorphine combined with low-dose bupivacaine is an advisable method of postoperative analgesia.

• The Korean Journal of Pain
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• v.2 no.1
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• pp.66-71
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• 1989

It has been standard practice in many institutions to use a combination of a light general anesthesia and an epidural block for lower abdominal and pelvic surgery. This combination of a balanced anesthesia can provide various benefits to the patient such as less bleeding in the surgical field, the use of a lower concentration of general anesthetics, less muscle relaxant, and post operative pain management. However, there are several problems associated with hemodynamics such as bradycardia and hypotension etc. In order to block the pain of the high surgical area with a lumbar epidural puncture postoperatively, a large volume of local anesthetic is required and consequently an extensive blockade of sympathetic, sensory and motor functions can occur causing motor weakness, numbness and postural hypotension. Therefore, the patient is unable to have early ambulation postoperatively. In this study, thoracic epidural catheterization was undertaken to locate the tip of the catheter exactly at the surgical level for upper abdominal surgery, and was followed by general anesthesia. Twenty-one patients scheduled for upper abdominal surgery were selected. Fifteen of them had hepatobiliary operations and the remaining 6 had gastrectomies. Thoracic epidural punctures were performed mostly at T9-T10 (57.1%) and T8-T9. Neuromuscular blocking agents were not used in half of the cases and the, mean doses of relaxant were $3.5{\pm}1.0mg$ in gastrectomies, and $2.7{\pm}0.9mg$ in cases of hepatobiliary operation. Epidural morphine was injected 1 hour before the end of the operation for postoperative pain control. Eight patients did not require additional analgesics and the mean dose of epidural morphine was $2.2{\pm}0.9mg$, and 13 cases were given 0.125% epidural bupivacaine when patients complained of pain. Their initial doses of epidural morphine were $1.9{\pm}0.4mg$ and the mean duration of bupivacaine was 6 hours 20 minutes${\pm}40$ minutes. In conclusion. thoracic epidural analgesia is valuable to reduce postoperative pain in patients with upper abdominal surgery, However, it is not easy to maintain this balanced anesthesia with high epidural analgesia-and light general anesthesia for upper abdominal surgery because of marked hemodynamic changes. Therefore, further practice will be required.

• The Korean Journal of Pain
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• v.27 no.3
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• pp.200-209
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• 2014

Background: Spinal opioid administration is an excellent option to separate the desirable analgesic effects of opioids from their expected dose-limiting side effects to improve postoperative analgesia. Therefore, physicians must better identify either specific opioids or adequate doses and routes of administration that result in a mainly spinal site of action rather than a cerebral analgesic one. Methods: The purpose of this topical review is to describe current available clinical evidence to determine what opioids reach high enough concentrations to produce spinally selective analgesia when given by epidural or intrathecal routes and also to make recommendations regarding their rational and safety use for the best management of postoperative pain. To this end, a search of Medline/Embase was conducted to identify all articles published up to December 2013 on this topic. Results: Recent advances in spinal opioid bioavailability, based on both animals and humans trials support the theory that spinal opioid bioavailability is inversely proportional to the drug lipid solubility, which is higher in hydrophilic opioids like morphine, diamorphine and hydromorphone than lipophilic ones like alfentanil, fentanyl and sufentanil. Conclusions: Results obtained from meta-analyses of RTCs is considered to be the 'highest' level and support their use. However, it's a fact that meta-analyses based on studies about treatment of postoperative pain should explore clinical surgery heterogeneity to improve patient's outcome. This observation forces physicians to use of a specific procedure surgical-based practical guideline. A vigilance protocol is also needed to achieve a good postoperative analgesia in terms of efficacy and security.

• The Korean Journal of Pain
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• v.37 no.2
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• pp.141-150
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• 2024

Background: Stingless bee propolis is a popular traditional folk medicine and has been employed since ancient times. This study aimed to evaluate the antinociceptive activities of the chemical constituents of aqueous propolis extract (APE) collected by Trigona thoracica in a nociceptive model in mice. Methods: The identification of chemical constituents of APE was performed using high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). Ninety-six male Swiss mice were administered APE (400 mg/kg, 1,000 mg/kg, and 2,000 mg/kg) before developing nociceptive pain models. Then, the antinociceptive properties of each APE dose were evaluated in acetic acid-induced abdominal constriction, hot plate test, and formalin-induced paw licking test. Administration of normal saline, acetylsalicylic acid (ASA, 100 mg/kg, orally), and morphine (5 mg/kg, intraperitoneally) were used for the experiments. Results: HPLC revealed that the APE from Trigona thoracica contained p-coumaric acid (R² = 0.999) and caffeic acid (R² = 0.998). Although all APE dosages showed inhibition of acetic acid-induced abdominal constriction, only 2,000 mg/kg was comparable to the result of ASA (68.7% vs. 73.3%, respectively). In the hot plate test, only 2,000 mg/kg of APE increased the latency time significantly compared to the control. In the formalin test, the durations of paw licking were significantly reduced at early and late phases in all APE groups with a decrease from 45.1% to 53.3%. Conclusions: APE from Trigona thoracica, containing p-coumaric acid and caffeic acid, exhibited antinociceptive effects, which supports its potential use in targeting the prevention or reversal of central and peripheral sensitization that may produce clinical pain conditions.

• Journal of The Korean Society of Clinical Toxicology
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.49-52
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• 2013

Fentanyl, a synthetic, highly selective opioid ${\mu}$-receptor agonist, is 50 to 100 times more potent than morphine. The low molecular weight, high potency, great transdermal permeation rate and lipid solubility of fentanyl make it very suitable for transdermal administration. Durogesic is a novel matrix transdermal system providing continuous systemic delivery of fentanyl. In recently, there are many reports that misused or overused fentanyl transdermal patches result in severe intoxication of fentanyl. We present a case of fentanyl toxicity with misused durogesic transdermal patch and discuss the safe and appropriate application of the patches. In conclusion, fentanyl patches should be used in opioid tolerant patients and prescribed at the lowest possible dose and titrated upward as needed. All patients and their caregivers should be educated safe application of fentanyl patches and advised to avoid exposing the patches application site to direct external heat sources, such as heating pads, or electric blankets, heat lamps, sauna, hot tubs, and others. In addition, concomittant medications that affect fentanyl's metabolism should be avoided.