Intravenous patient-controlled analgesia regimen in postoperative pain management following elective cesarean section: A single-center retrospective evaluation

Intravenous patient-controlled analgesia (IV PCA; IVA) is the most widely used method for postoperative pain management. An appropriate IVA regimen is required, depending on the expected intensity of pain after surgery. This study expected that a decrease in the second prescription rate of IVA after elective cesarean section (CS) would help establish an appropriate regimen for the initial IVA. We retrospectively reviewed the records of 632 patients who were prescribed IVA after CS. We classified patients into phase 1 (basal rate 15.00 mcg/hours, bolus dose 15.00 mcg, total volume 100 mL) and phase 2 (basal rate 31.25 mcg/hours, bolus dose 31.25 mcg, nefopam 60 mg, paracetamol 3 g, total volume 160 mL) according to the IVA regimen, and patients in phase 2 were classified into the basal 15 group and basal 30 group according to the basal rate of IVA. We compared the rates of second prescription, drug removal, and side effects of IVA between the 2 phases and the 1 group. We analyzed the data of 631 eligible patients. The second prescription rate of IVA in phase 2 was 3.77%, a significant decrease compared to that in phase 1 (27.48%); however, the incidence of complications in phase 2 was 6.92%, a significant increase compared to that in phase 1 (0.96%). Within phase 2, in the basal 30 group, the basal rate was almost double that in the basal 15 group. However, there were no significant differences in the rate of second prescription, removed drug IVA, or adverse events between the basal 15, and 30 groups. In the case of CS, which has a high degree of postoperative pain, it is beneficial to control acute pain by properly setting the regimen of the initial IVA with a basal rate infusion to nullify a second prescription.