[Critical infusion incident caused by incorrect use of a patient-controlled analgesia pump]

We report on the case of a 17-year-old male patient who received a PCA pump after nephrectomy for postoperative analgesia. The syringe of the PCA pump was filled with 50 mg morphine and positioned about 25 cm above the heart. Since the piston of the syringe was not bolted while the pump was switched off, an unnoticed accidental evacuation of the whole content of the syringe into the intravenous line of the patient occurred because of gravity. This problem exists not only with PCA pumps, but can happen with syringe pumps in general. The incident, which can only be explained by strongly reduced venous pressure, was detected by chance. No harm resulted for the patient, but under different conditions it could have been lethal. This critical incident was caused by various factors: incorrect application in combination with insufficient experience or training, stress, inadequate handing-over of the patient and a lack of arrangements and instructions for procedures in routine situations. Suggestions for preventing such dangerous critical incidents are made and discussed. In particular, an algorithm for the correct procedure when inserting or changing the syringe of a syringe pump is presented.