Patient-Controlled Analgesia for Abdominal Pain in the ED

Researchers evaluated the efficacy of patient-controlled analgesia in 211 adult patients who presented to a single emergency department with abdominal pain of ≤7 days duration and required intravenous opioids for pain control. Patients were randomized to receive a loading dose of 0.1 mg/kg morphine IV followed by either physician-managed analgesia as needed or patient-controlled analgesia with morphine delivered by pump at a dose of either 1.0 or 1.5 mg (with a 6-minute lockout between doses).

Mean pain scores on a scale of 0 to 10 decreased by similar amounts in the three groups at 30 minutes and diverged thereafter. From 30 to 120 minutes, mean scores decreased significantly more in the 1.0-mg and 1.5-mg patient-controlled groups than in t…