Intravenous morphine is the most commonly used care for relieving acute pain in the emergency room, but the need to get an IV line started before administration limits its rapid use.
In a recent study from Marc Blancher of Grenoble Alpes University Hospital, researchers found that for patents going to an emergency department with severe pain, intranasal sufentanil was as good as intravenous morphine for pain relief.
The study is published in PLOS Medicine. The lead author is Marc Blancher from Grenoble Alpes University Hospital.
In this study, the team examined 136 patients who presented to the emergency departments of six hospitals across France.
Patients ranged in age from 18 to 75 years old and had strong traumatic pain.
A total of 69 patients received intranasal sufentanil and 67 patients received intravenous morphine.
The team found that patients’ pain rating dropped by 4.1 points in the 30 minutes after receiving intravenous morphine, and by 5.2 points after receiving intranasal sufentanil.
Intranasal sufentanil was shown to be as good as intravenous morphine in terms of pain control at 30 minutes.
The team also found 6 severe adverse events in the intranasal sufentanil group and 2 in the intravenous morphine group.
The researchers say the use of intranasal sufentanil might provide an easy and time-saving solution in the management of emergency pain.
Further research will be needed on the safety of intranasal sufentanil.
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