Acute pain management with intravenous 0.10 mg/kg vs. 0.15 mg/kg morphine sulfate in limb traumatized patients: a randomized double-blinded placebo-controlled trial.

BACKGROUND: We aimed to compare pain relief and safety of two doses of morphine in adult emergency department (ED) patients with acute limb trauma pain. METHODS: A total of 200 adult ED patients over 20 years of age requiring opioid analgesia were randomly allocated to two groups. Following a first dose of intravenous morphine sulfate at 0.10 mg/kg, a randomized double-blind placebo-controlled trial of intravenous morphine sulfate at 0.05 mg/kg versus the same amount of placebo was performed. Measurement of visual analogue scale pain intensity and assessment of adverse effects were performed at baseline (before morphine at 0.10 mg/kg), 30 minutes from baseline (just before study drug administration), and at 60 minutes from baseline (30 minutes after study drug). RESULTS: No significant difference was found between groups at 30 minutes from baseline. There was significant reduction in final pain after 1 hour in the 0.15 mg/kg compared to 0.10 mg/kg group (p<0.05). In addition, there was a significant improvement in the mean score of pain in the same group (p<0.05). The percent of pain reduction in the intervention and control group relative to the basic measures was 52.70% and 35.82%, respectively. Adverse effects were present in both groups; however, there was no statistically significant difference between groups. CONCLUSION: Using two doses of morphine instead of one is a safe and effective method for pain reduction in isolated limb trauma. We recommend performing a second injection of 0.05 mg/kg morphine 30 minutes after the initial standard dose of 0.10 mg/ kg to decrease pain in these patients.