Pain
Conditions
Keywords
Acute, Pain, Emergency Department, Morphine, Hydromorphone, Dilaudid, oligoanalgesia
Brief summary
To compare a standard weight-based dose of intravenous (IV) hydromorphone (Dilaudid) to a standard weight-based dose of IV morphine in adults presenting to the Emergency Department (ED) with acute severe pain.
Detailed description
There is widespread agreement that pain is under-treated in the Emergency Department (ED). The current recommended treatment of acute pain in the ED setting is administration of an initial bolus of morphine followed by titration until adequate analgesia is achieved. Several studies have shown that even 0.1 mg/kg IV morphine (7-10 mg administered to the average 70-100 kg patient) inadequately treats many patients' acute pain. In spite of this, it has been observed that many emergency physicians and nurses are hesitant to give 7-10 mg of morphine as an initial IV dose. In contrast, it has been observed that these same healthcare providers were not similarly reluctant to administer a roughly equianalgesic dose of hydromorphone (1-1.5 mg), perhaps because the more potent hydromorphone is given in much smaller milligram quantities than morphine, thus providing the illusion of substantially less opioid administered to the patient. Having repeatedly observed this phenomenon, it is reasonable that if a smaller milligram dose of hydromorphone were shown to provide an efficacy, safety, and side-effect profile comparable or superior to a larger milligram dose of morphine, it would provide evidence supporting use of hydromorphone as an alternative first line opioid in the treatment of acute pain presenting to the ED. As a practical corollary to this, it is reasoned further that the increased willingness of healthcare providers to use hydromorphone might contribute to reducing one component of the multifaceted problem of oligoanalgesia in the ED.
Interventions
DRUGMorphine
0.1 mg/kg IV morphine
DRUGHydromorphone
0.015 mg/kg IV hydromorphone
Sponsors
Montefiore Medical Center
Study design
Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Intervention model
PARALLEL
Primary purpose
TREATMENT
Masking
DOUBLE (Subject, Caregiver)
Eligibility
Sex/Gender
ALL
Age
21 Years to 65 Years
Healthy volunteers
Yes
Inclusion criteria
* adults between the ages of 21 and 65 who presented to the ED with acute pain (defined as pain less than 7 days in duration) (23) of sufficient severity in the judgment of the ED attending to warrant use of IV opioids.
Exclusion criteria
* previous allergy to morphine or hydromorphone * systolic blood pressure less than 90 mmHg * alcohol intoxication as judged by the attending physician * use of other opioids within the past 7 days * use of an Monoamine Oxidase (MAO) inhibitor * chronic pain syndromes (such as sickle cell disease or fibromyalgia)
Design outcomes
Primary
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Change in Pain Intensity from baseline to 30 minutes after medications were infused. | baseline to 30 minutes after medication infused | Pain intensity is measured by the numerical rating scale (NRS), from 0 (no pain) to 10 (worst pain imaginable) |
Secondary
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Pain intensity 30 minutes after medication is given | 30 minutes after medication is given | Pain intensity is measured by the numerical rating scale (NRS), from 0 (no pain) to 10 (worst pain imaginable). |
| Pain intensity 2 hours after medication is given | 2 hours after medication is given | Pain intensity is measured by the numerical rating scale (NRS), from 0 (no pain) to 10 (worst pain imaginable). |
| Number of participants experiencing vomiting between baseline to 5 minutes after medication is given | baseline to 5 minutes after medication is given | Number of participants who experienced vomiting and required medication between baseline and 5 minutes after medication was infused |
| Number of participants experiencing vomiting between 6 minutes after medication is given to 30 minutes after medication is given | 6 minutes after medication is given to 30 minutes after medication is given | Number of participants who experienced vomiting and required medication between 6 minutes after medication was infused and 30 minutes after medication was infused |
| Pain intensity 5 minutes after medication is given | 5 minutes after medication is given | Pain intensity is measured by the numerical rating scale (NRS), from 0 (no pain) to 10 (worst pain imaginable). |
| Number of participants who received additional pain medication between baseline and 5 minutes after medication was infused | baseline to 5 minutes after medication was infused | Number of participants for whom the administered pain medication was not sufficient, leading to the patient receiving additional pain medication between baseline and 5 minutes after medication was infused |
| Number of participants who received additional pain medication between 6 and 30 minutes after medication was infused | 6 minutes to 30 minutes after medication was infused | Number of patients for whom the administered pain medication was not sufficient, leading to the patient receiving additional pain medication between 6 and 30 minutes after the medication was infused |
| Number of participants who received additional pain medication between 31 and 120 minutes after medication was infused | 31 minutes to 120 minutes after medication was infused | Number of patients for whom the administered pain medication was not sufficient, leading to the patient receiving additional pain medication between 31 and 120 minutes after medication was infused |
| Number of participants experiencing vomiting between 31 minutes after medication is given to 120 minutes after medication is given | 31 minutes after medication is given to 120 minutes after medication is given | Number of participants who experienced vomiting and required medication between 31 minutes after medication was infused and 120 minutes after medication was infused |
Countries
United States
Outcome results
None listed