You need to sign in or sign up before continuing.
Lancet
-
Randomized Controlled Trial Clinical Trial
Preoperative morphine pre-empts postoperative pain.
Postoperative analgesia is usually inadequate, perhaps because conventional approaches to pain relief do not take account of underlying mechanisms. Pre-emptive analgesia may prevent nociceptive inputs generated during surgery from sensitising central neurons and, therefore, may reduce postoperative pain. ⋯ Pain sensitivity around the wound was reduced in both preoperative treatment groups compared with the iv post group. We conclude that pre-emptive analgesia with intravenous morphine, by preventing the establishment of central sensitisation during surgery, reduces postoperative pain, analgesic requirements, and secondary hyperalgesia.