Intravenous oxycodone versus morphine patient-controlled analgesia (PCA) after uterine artery embolisation: A...

The use of intravenous oxycodone is still limited in the Interventional Radiology setting. This study aimed to assess the safety and efficacy of intravenous oxycodone used in patient-controlled analgesia (PCA) after uterine fibroid embolisation (UFE), compared to morphine.

Retrospective case-control study. The study group consisted of patients treated with UFE between March and December 2024, using an oxycodone protocol. The control group consisted of a previously published dataset using morphine protocol. Primary outcomes were safety and the incidence of severe nausea.

There were 57 patients in the oxycodone group compared to 69 in the morphine group. After propensity score matching, this left 43 in the oxycodone group and 60 in the morphine group. Groups were similar in terms of background demographics, however the use of smaller 355-500 micrometre polyvinyl alcohol particles were higher in the oxycodone group (100% vs 18%, p < 0.001).No analgesic-related adverse events were observed in either group. The incidence of severe nausea was lower in the oxycodone group (43.3% vs 37.2%, p = 0.533) despite a higher rate of post-embolisation syndrome (65.1% vs 48.3%, p = 0.091). After multiparametric logistic regression, oxycodone was associated with a 64% reduced odds of severe nausea (OR 0.36, p = 0.217).

Intravenous oxycodone PCA is safe and showed a trend towards a lower incidence of severe nausea compared with morphine PCA.

There is limited evidence of the use of oxycodone PCA to treat post-embolisation syndrome. This study showed it was safe and resulted in reduced nausea compared to morphine.