[Patient-controlled analgesia in children].

In order to introduce intravenous patient-controlled analgesia (PCA) in children in the Department of Anaesthesiology and Intensive Care, Odense University Hospital, we evaluated the technique in 13 children following major orthopaedic or abdominal surgery. The pump (Pharmacia-Deltec, CADD-PCA) was loaded with 1 mg/ml morphine in a 50 milliliters cassette. A bolus dose of 25 micrograms/kg and a lock-out interval of eight minutes were the initial settings. The morphine dose used, pain scores and side effects were currently recorded. Ages ranged from 4-15 years (mean 10.5 years) and the method was used for a mean of 89 hours (range 57-144 hours) postoperatively. Morphine requirements averaged 9.5 microgram/kg/hour (range 5.4-15.6 microgram/kg/hour). Pain control was good and side effects were few and of minor nature. PCA is an effective and safe means of providing good quality analgesia in children.