Monitoring in the intensive care unit is not always necessary.
Most patients receiving spinal narcotics can be monitored adequately by well-trained nurses on postoperative or postdelivery wards. Patients at high risk (e.g., those with preexisting lung disease or many elderly patients) do need monitoring in the intensive care unit. Also requiring special monitoring are patients for whom epidural narcotics alone will not cover their pain, such as young patients with multiple trauma. Patients without these restrictions, however, can be monitored successfully outside the intensive care unit, although the dose of epidural narcotic should be kept as low as possible.
Mott
J M
JM
Department of Anesthesiology, University of California, Davis, Medical Center, Sacramento 95817.
Eisele
J H
JH
D000701:Analgesics, Opioid / Q000008:administration & dosage / Q000009:adverse effects*; D006801:Humans; D007268:Injections, Epidural; D007278:Injections, Spinal; D007362:Intensive Care Units; D008991:Monitoring, Physiologic / Q000295:instrumentation*; D010149:Postoperative Pain / Q000188:drug therapy*; D012131:Respiratory Insufficiency / Q000139:chemically induced*; D012307:Risk Factors
D000701:Analgesics, Opioid