Acute dystonia by droperidol during intravenous patient-controlled analgesia in young patients.

Patient-controlled analgesia (PCA) is an important means for postoperative analgesia with parenteral opioid. However, postoperative nausea and vomiting (PONV) remains a major problem with a PCA system. Droperidol is used in PCA to prevent PONV. Extrapyramidal reactions by droperidol are, however, occasionally induced. We describe two cases of severe extrapyramidal hypertonic syndrome with an intravenous administration of droperidol in PCA in young patients, following orthopedic surgery.