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LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Postoperative Intrathecal Morphine for Analgesia after Major Orthopedic Surgery?

Department of Anesthesia, Royal Victoria Hospital, McGill University, Montreal, QC, Canada

To the Editor:

I read with great interest the case report by Tsui et al. reporting the reversal of an unintentional spinal anesthetic by cerebrospinal lavage (1). In their description of the case the authors state that when the patient complained of pain 20 min after extubation and 50 min after the epidural, i.e., intrathecal infusion was terminated, the patient’s pain "was managed with morphine patient-controlled epidural analgesia." I wonder whether the authors indeed continued to use the same epidural-intrathecal catheter for postoperative pain treatment, and if yes, what dose of morphine they administered?

Reference

1. Tsui BCH, Malherbe S, Koller J, Aronyk K. Reversal of an unintentional spinal anesthetic by cerebrospinal lavage. Anesth Analg 2004; 98: 434–6.[Abstract/Free Full Text]

Response

Department of Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada

In Response:

We thank Dr. Schricker for his interest in our recent publication. Dr. Schricker’s letter pointed out a typographical error in the case report. This patient’s epidural-intrathecal catheter was removed after the cerebrospinal lavage. The article should have read as follows: "Subsequent postoperative pain was managed with intravenous morphine patient-controlled analgesia" rather than "Subsequent postoperative pain was managed with morphine patient-controlled epidural analgesia." To clarify, the patient’s postoperative pain therefore, was controlled with intravenous PCA morphine (bolus 1.2 mg, lock-out 8 min, concentration 2 mg/mL). We thank Dr. Schricker for his attentiveness to detail and apologize for any confusion this error may have caused the readers.

This Article Full Text (PDF) Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a colleague Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in Web of Science Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Request Permissions Citing Articles Citing Articles via Web of Science (1) Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Schricker, T. Articles by Tsui, B. C. H. Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Schricker, T. Articles by Tsui, B. C. H.