The effect of intravenous opioid patient-controlled analgesia with and without background infusion on respiratory depression: A meta-analysis

Jessica A. George, MD; Elaina E. Lin, MD; Marie N. Hanna, MD; Jamie D. Murphy, MD; Kanupriya Kumar, MD; Phebe S. Ko, BS; Christopher L. Wu, MD

doi:10.5055/jom.2010.0004

Authors

Jessica A. George, MD
Elaina E. Lin, MD
Marie N. Hanna, MD
Jamie D. Murphy, MD
Kanupriya Kumar, MD
Phebe S. Ko, BS
Christopher L. Wu, MD

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5055/jom.2010.0004

Keywords:

background infusion, continuous infusion, patient-controlled analgesia, postoperative pain, meta-analysis

Abstract

Background: Although the addition of a background infusion for intravenous patient-controlled analgesia (IV-PCA) has been identified as a risk factor for the development of respiratory depression, this has not clearly been examined in a systematic fashion. The authors undertook a systematic review and meta-analysis of available randomized controlled trials (RCTs) to examine whether the addition of a background or continuous infusion to an IV-PCA regimen would be associated with an increased risk of respiratory depression.
Methods: Studies were identified by searching the National Library of Medicine’s PubMed database (1966 to November 30, 2008). Inclusion criteria were a clearly defined analgesic technique of demand-only IV-PCA versus IV-PCA utilizing both a demand dose and background infusion, opioid medication used, and randomized trials. Data were abstracted and analyzed with the RevMan 4.2.7 (The Cochrane Collaboration, 2004).
Results: The search yielded 687 abstracts from which the original articles were obtained and data abstracted with a total of 14 articles analyzed. There were 402 subjects in the continuous IV-PCA with demand group versus the 394 subjects in the demand-only IV-PCA group. Addition of a background infusion to the demand dose for IV-PCA with opioids was associated with a significant increased risk for respiratory depression (odds ratio [OR] = 4.68, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.20-18.21). Subgroup analysis revealed that this increased risk was seen in adult but not in pediatric patients.
Conclusions: Our meta-analysis indicates that the addition of a continuous or background infusion to the demand dose for IV-PCA is associated with a higher incidence of respiratory events than demand IV-PCA alone in adult but not in pediatric patients; however, our overall results should be interpreted with caution due to the relatively small sample size and the wide range of definitions for respiratory depression in studies examined.

Author Biographies

Jessica A. George, MD

Clinical Associate, Department of Anesthesiology and Critical Care Medicine, The Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland.

Elaina E. Lin, MD

Resident, Department of Anesthesiology and Critical Care Medicine, The Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland.

Marie N. Hanna, MD

Assistant Professor, Department of Anesthesiology and Critical Care Medicine, The Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland.

Jamie D. Murphy, MD

Assistant Professor, Department of Anesthesiology and Critical Care Medicine, The Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland.

Kanupriya Kumar, MD

Assistant Professor, Department of Anesthesiology and Critical Care Medicine, The Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland.

Phebe S. Ko, BS

Medical Student, Department of Anesthesiology and Critical Care Medicine, The Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland.

Christopher L. Wu, MD

Professor, Department of Anesthesiology and Critical Care Medicine, The Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland.

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