title: Effectiveness of prehospital morphine, fentanyl, and methoxyflurane in pediatric patients.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To compare the effectiveness of intravenous morphine, intranasal (IN) fentanyl, and inhaled methoxyflurane for managing moderate to severe pain in pediatric patients in the out-of-hospital setting.
  
  
  METHODS
  We conducted a retrospective comparative study of 3,312 pediatric patients aged between 5 and 15 years who had moderate to severe pain (pain score ≥ 5) and who received intravenous morphine, IN fentanyl, or inhaled methoxyflurane, either alone or in combination, between January 1, 2004, and November 30, 2006. Multivariate logistic regression was used to analyze data extracted from a clinical database containing routinely entered information from patient health care records. The primary outcome measure was effective analgesia, defined as a reduction in pain severity of ≥ 30% of initial pain score using an 11-point verbal numeric rating scale.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Effective analgesia was achieved in 82.5% of cases overall. All analgesic agents were effective in the majority of patients (87.5%, 89.5%, and 78.3% for morphine, fentanyl, and methoxyflurane, respectively). There was evidence that methoxyflurane was less effective than both morphine (odds ratio [OR] 0.52; 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.36-0.74) and fentanyl (OR 0.43; 95% CI 0.29-0.62; p < 0.0001). There was no clinical or statistical evidence of difference in the effectiveness of fentanyl and morphine in this population (OR 1.22; 95% CI 0.74-2.01). There was no evidence that combination analgesia was better than either fentanyl or morphine alone.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Intranasal fentanyl and intravenous morphine are equally effective analgesic agents in pediatric patients with moderate to severe acute pain in the out-of-hospital setting. Methoxyflurane is less effective in comparison with both morphine and fentanyl, but is an effective analgesic in the majority of children.
authors.affiliation: Ambulance Research Institute, Ambulance Service of NSW, Rozelle, New South Wales, Australia.
authors.forename: Jason C
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Bendall
authors.forename: Paul M
authors.initials: PM
authors.lastname: Simpson
authors.forename: Paul M
authors.initials: PM
authors.lastname: Middleton
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000701:Analgesics, Opioid / Q000008:administration & dosage / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D018685:Anesthetics, Inhalation / Q000008:administration & dosage / Q000627:therapeutic use; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D016208:Databases, Factual; D004632:Emergency Medical Services / Q000379:methods / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D005260:Female; D005283:Fentanyl / Q000008:administration & dosage / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D006801:Humans; D007262:Infusions, Intravenous; D008297:Male; D008733:Methoxyflurane / Q000008:administration & dosage / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D009020:Morphine / Q000008:administration & dosage / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D009294:Narcotics / Q000008:administration & dosage / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D009517:New South Wales; D010147:Pain Measurement; D010372:Pediatrics; D012189:Retrospective Studies
chemical_list: D000701:Analgesics, Opioid; D018685:Anesthetics, Inhalation; D009294:Narcotics; D008733:Methoxyflurane; D009020:Morphine; D005283:Fentanyl