SUBCUTANEOUS MORPHINE INFUSION BY SYRINGE DRIVER FOR TERMINALLY-ILL PATIENTS

The study aimed to find whether subcutaneous morphine administration b y syringe driver for terminally ill patients in a Dutch nursing home l ed to higher morphine doses and earlier death than routine morphine ad ministration. The data comprised the files of all patients dying over a 2-year period in a 355-bed nursing home in Delft in the Netherlands. Thirty-eight per cent of thc patients had been given morphine, 29% by continuous subcutaneous syringe driver. In comparing the patients giv en morphine with and without a syringe driver no differences emerged i n mean age, sex, length of admission, type of ward, diagnosis, duratio n of morphine administration and mean dose. The data indicate that sub cutaneous morphine administration by syringe driver decreases dose fre quency problems and improves the control of pain and other symptoms in the last week before death. There was no evidence that administration of morphine in this way shortens survival.