Intrathecal morphine in the treatment of chronic intractable pain

  • F. A. Chambers
  • R. MacSullivan
Article

Summary

Fifteen patients with intractable pain received intrathecal morphine delivered via a programmable (Medtronic) device. In twelve patients the pain was due to cancer and three patients had pain of non malignant origin. All of the patients reported excellent or good relief. A total of 14 complications were reported in 7 patients. Most of these were minor and related to surgical or mechanical problems. One patient with pain of non malignant origin developed serious complications which required the removal of the infusion device. The results of this study show that chronic intrathecal infusion of morphine is superior to conventional forms of analgesia in patients with intractable pain of malignant origin. We would advise that it should remain a therapy of last resort in patients with intractable non malignant pain as the long term side effects are still unknown and the potential for serious side effects still exists.

Keywords

Morphine Cancer Pain Epidural Morphine Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy Intrathecal Morphine 
These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.
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Copyright information

© Springer 1994

Authors and Affiliations

  • F. A. Chambers
    • 1
  • R. MacSullivan
    • 1
  1. 1.Departments of Anaesthesia & Pain ManagementMater Misericordiae HospitalDublin

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