PATIENT-CONTROLLED ANALGESIA - A NEW METHOD FOR OLD

Patient-controlled analgesia (PCA) has successfully made the transitio n from a research tool for the investigation of pain, to a wider clini cal utility as method of pain control. Reliable and sophisticated PCA systems have been commercially available for some time. The technique has been most commonly used for control of postoperative pain, but has also been successfully used during labour, after bums, in acute painf ul medical conditions and in terminal care. It is generally more effec tive than the traditional methods of postoperative pain control but no t automatically so. The choice of opioid, the settings chosen for dema nd dose and the lockout interval will greatly influence the effectiven ess of this method of analgesia. Psychological variables are also impo rtant in predicting the efficacy of PCA.