Journal of clinical anesthesia
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Meta Analysis
Postoperative patient-controlled analgesia: meta-analyses of initial randomized control trials.
To compare outcomes during conventional analgesia (as-needed intramuscular dosing) and patient-controlled analgesia (PCA) in postoperative patients by analyzing data from published comparative trials. ⋯ Patient preference strongly favors PCA over conventional analgesia. Patients using PCA also obtain better pain relief than those using conventional analgesia, without an increase in side effects. Favorable effect of PCA upon analgesic usage and length of hospital stay did not in the initial trials attain statistical significance. Nonetheless, the favorable trends in the mean effect sizes for both outcomes argue that further studies of both outcomes should be performed to determine whether the favorable impact of PCA upon either may become statistically significant if larger numbers of patients are enrolled.