Self-administered intranasal meperidine for postoperative pain management

Recent studies have demonstrated that intranasal is comparable to intravenous opioid titration in its pain-relieving effect. In these studies, however, the intranasal opioid titration was performed by the investigator, and the treatment period was two hours or less. The purpose of this randomized, prospective study was to investigate whether intranasal opioid administration by the patients themselves for a prolonged postoperative period may be regarded as a therapeutic alternative for postoperative pain management. Forty-four orthopaedic patients were studied over a 12-hr period on the first day after surgery. Twenty-two had free access to intranasal meperidine (nasal group) and were allowed to administer six intranasal puffs (27 mg per dose). The next self-administration was only permitted after a delay of at least ten minutes. Another 22 patients received intermittent subcutaneous meperidine injections (25 or 50 mg) on request (sc group). Pain intensity was recorded at 30-min intervals with the aid of the 101-point numerical rating scale. The pain score was lower in the nasal than in the sc group at the 30, 150 to 330, 420 to 480 and 540 to 600 min measuring points (P = < 0.05). The meperidine requirement was 112.9 +/- 81.3 mg in the nasal and 103.4 +/- 41.5 mg in the sc group (NS). Two patients in each group complained of nausea and vomiting. Thirteen of the 21 nasal and nine of the 15 sc patients who completed the final questionnaire rated the pain management as excellent or good (NS).(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)