Sublingual morphine may be a suitable alternative for pain control in children in the postoperative period

The purpose of this pilot study was to compare the effects of sublingual mo rphine with intravenous morphine in the treatment of postoperative pain fol lowing adenotonsillectomy in children. Twenty-nine children scheduled for a denotonsillectomy were randomly assigned to group1 (n = 14) receiving 0.1 m g.kg(-1) sublingual morphine and group 2 (n = 15) 0.1 mg.kg(-1) intravenous morphine followed by 1 mg.kg (-1) diclofenac rectally in both groups after induction of anaesthesia. Postoperatively, time to first eye opening, seda tion score, pain score, time for further analgesia requests and incidence o f nausea and vomiting were recorded. There was no statistical significant d ifference in any of these parameters between the two groups. The results su ggest that sublingual morphine may be a suitable alternative to various oth er routes of opioid administration in children, but further investigations of the sublingual route of administration. of opioids in children are requi red.