[Long-term peridural morphine analgesia in neoplastic and vascular pathology]

Epidural analgesia using morphine has been used on 44 patients with intractable chronic pain, resistant to analgesics (including opiates). The pain was due to cancer in 24 cases, of vascular origin in 20. An indwelling tunnelized epidural catheter afforded repeated injections of morphine for a long period (up to 129 days) either in hospital or at home. The quality of analgesia achieved was rated as excellent or good, in 68 p. 100 of cases. Two cases only were total failures. Side effects, relatively common, were usually transient and minor; no case of respiratory depression or of infection has been recorded.