Papers of the Week

We read with great interest the study by Bijur, et al. that evaluated the analgesic efficacy of IV acetaminophen as an adjunct to IV hydromorphone for the treatment of severe, acute pain in the emergency department (ED). The study found that there was no significant difference in analgesia when 1 g of IV acetaminophen was added to 1 mg of IV hydromorphone. While we are in complete agreement with the authors about the utilization of combinations of analgesics from different therapeutic classes, we were surprised by the study of these two specific drugs.