COMPARISON OF DIFFERENT BOLUS DOSES OF MORPHINE FOR PATIENT-CONTROLLED ANALGESIA IN CHILDREN

Forty children undergoing appendicectomy were allocated randomly to re ceive one of two PCA regimens with morphine. Group B10 received bolus doses of 10 mu g kg(-1) and group B20 received bolus doses of 20 mu g kg(-1). In both groups there was a lockout interval of 5 min and a bac kground infusion of 4 mu g kg(-1) h(-1). Group B20 self-administered c onsiderably more morphine (P < 0.01) than group BIG. There was no diff erence between She pain scores of the groups at rest. Group B20 had si gnificantly (P < 0.05) smaller pain scores during movement than group BIO and the latter group suffered significantly (P < 0.01) more hypoxa emic episodes than group B20. There were no differences between the gr oups in the incidence of vomiting, excess sedation or the amount of ti me spent asleep at night.