Management of refractory pain in hospitalized adolescents with sickle cell disease: changing from intravenous opioids to continuous infusion epidural analgesia.

BACKGROUND

Prolonged hospitalizations for sickle cell disease painful episodes are not uncommon, as analgesic options are often suboptimal.

OBSERVATIONS

Seven patients (15.4 ± 3.7 y, 6 females) were treated with epidural analgesia for refractory pain. The median duration of epidural catheter placement was 4 days (interquartile range, 3 to 6 d). Mean pain scores changed from 6.8 ± 2.7 to 4.8 ± 2.2, whereas mean daily parenteral opioid requirements changed from 79.7 ± 100.4 to 13.0 ± 13.1 mg of morphine equivalents.

CONCLUSION

Continuous epidural analgesia is an alternative to continuing intravenous opioids in sickle cell disease patients with refractory pain, and may reduce opioid-related side effects and facilitate transition to oral analgesics.