Papers of the Week

Acute postoperative pain delays recovery and increases morbidity and mortality. Opioid therapy is effective but is accompanied by adverse reactions. Patient-controlled analgesia (PCA) enables self-administration of analgesics. Oral-PCA is a safe and beneficial alternative to intravenous (IV) PCA. We have developed a novel Oral-PCA device, which enables self-administration of solid pills to the patient's mouth. This is a retrospective study comparing the effectiveness and usability of this novel Oral-PCA with those of IV-PCA.