Articles: analgesia.
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Ned Tijdschr Geneeskd · Jul 1993
[Continuous intrathecal analgesia in terminal cancer patients within transmural health care].
To record the daily morphine doses, the influence of the treatment on quality of life and the incidence of side-effects and complications of continuous intrathecal morphine administration. ⋯ In terminally ill cancer patients, the continuous intrathecal administration of morphine may be recommended if conventional pain relief fails.
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Three cases of iatrogenic infection following the insertion and subsequent use of an epidural catheter are described. The development, symptoms, diagnostic possibilities and treatment of epidural abscess are described. It is stressed that patients with decreased immunological defences are more prone to infection. ⋯ Despite neurosurgical intervention both patients developed paralysis of the lower extremities, bladder and intestinal function, in one of them irreversibly. We also describe one patient who developed meningitis following eight attempts to insert an epidural catheter. The importance of quick diagnosis and intervention is stressed as well as the importance of strict sterility while inserting and using epidural catheters.
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Journal of anesthesia · Jul 1993
Differences in the assessment of postoperative pain when evaluated by patients and doctors.
This study was undertaken to compare the assessment of pain intensity by 59 patients and by their doctors according to a visual analogue scale (VAS) at rest and when coughing at 5 and 20 hr after major abdominal surgery. The rating given by the patients, who received epidural analgesia to relieve postoperative pain, was significantly above, and moreover, significantly correlated with that given by the doctors at any time or under any condition of the assessment. ⋯ Our findings indicate that the assessment of postoperative pain may be associated with some unreliability, especially during early periods, when using the subjective or objective-rated VAS at rest separately, and thus requires the combined use or the concomitant use of the VAS when coughing. Substitutional use of the objective-rated VAS for the subjective-rated VAS is not advised.