Anesthésie et recherche clinique
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Changing Trends in Use of IV-Patient-Controlled Anesthesia (IV-PCA) in a District General Hospital over the Last 15 Years and Proposed Factors behind this

Miriam Hassani and Thomas Atkinson

Our study aimed to investigate the changing popularity of intravenous opioid patient-controlled analgesia (PCA) use at our Trust. We collected data from our Trust’s Pain Services database, identifying how many PCAs were used by each specialty from 2000-2014. Our data demonstrated a clear trend of decline in the use of PCA across all specialties since 2004. A survey of all of our hospital’s Consultant Anesthetists was made to gather opinion regarding the reasons for this decline. The survey results suggest that PCA use has declined over the last 15 years for several reasons; the main being increasing popularity of regional anesthesia and the availability of improved oral analgesics. Despite this, 91% of the consultants in our department feel that the availability of PCA should continue and that there is still a place for its use as a form of analgesia in our patient population.