A Treatment for Intractable Pain / 대한마취과학회지

ABSTRACT

Recently, epidural tunnelling was introduced for the convenience of keeping a catheter inserted for a long period of time. We had 15 cases in which used epidural tunnelling for the tratment of intractable pain mainly in terminal cancer patients. Epidural puncture with cannulation was carried out in the same technique as used for epidural anesthesia. After the subcutaneous epidural tunnelling was done from the site of the epidural entry to the anterior chest, just under the skin using a tunnelling device, the catheter was threaded through the tunnelling needle at the sit of the outlet, was fixed and the tip of the catheter was connected to a filter. Five ml(2mg) of saline diluted morphine can be given at home as needed when intractable pain occurs. This long-term treatment of intractable pain by morphine injections through the epidural cannula place by subcutaneous tunnelling, is very convenient for the patient's daily routine and a better alternative in such a situation. Our technique, its advantages and problems were described in this paper.