Pain Management

Disease Area

Chronic pain affects millions of people worldwide every year. Its presence significantly degrades the affected person's ability to function physically and emotionally, decreasing quality of life. Several standards and guidelines exist for the assessment and relief of pain – one being a recommendation by the World Health Organization (WHO) known as the “pain ladder” for pain management¹.

Pain Relief

One of the most commonly prescribed class of drugs for pain is opioids, which can be classified as weak or strong. For patients with severe pain associated with serious or advanced illness, the use of opioids for palliative pain management is considered the standard of care and an effective pain reducing therapy.

Infusion Therapy

Best practice in pain management is to use the least invasive route of administration for the prescribed opioid. As a consequence patients are in most cases introduced to opioid pain management  in a short acting formulation by taking the morphine in an oral form.1 However, if the pain continues and relief is not reached, or in cases of severe pain, patients may be prescribed stronger opioids by oral administration. If patients are unable to take medication orally, then opioids may be administered by injection or continuous infusion. Subcutaneous infusion of opioids is considered preferable, as it is less invasive and may be better tolerated than intravenous infusion, and less painful than intramuscular injection.

neria™ infusion sets for Pain Management

As relief and comfort are areas of focus in pain management, especially in palliative care, the soft cannula range of neria™ infusion sets are recommended in many cases for the infusion.  These infusion sets have a disconnect feature which make the sets convenient to use during long infusion periods.

In general, however, the choice of infusion set should always be based on the health care professional’s assessment of each individual patient’s situation.

neria™ infusion sets have been tested for safe use with hydromorphone, morphine sulfate and morphine chloride for pain management^2,3.

Clinical studies

Clinical studies showed that neria™ infusion sets helped minimize pain during insertion and reduced needle related traumas ^4,5.

For complete clinical references, please contact ConvaTec Infusion Care at info.infusion-set@unomedical.com.

1. WHO web site, www.who.int/cancer/palliative/painladder/en/
2. Drug Compatibility Study of Three Infusion Devices with Morphine Sulfate, version 1.4, IKFE 10006, September 2, 2011, Data on File. Unomedical.
3. Drug Compatibility Study of Three Infusion Devices with Hydromorphone Hydrochloride, version 1.4, IKFE 10006, September 2, 2011, Data on File. Unomedical.
4. Chan G.C.F, Ng D.M.W. et al, Comparison of Subcutaneous Infusion Needles for Transfusion-Dependent Thalassemia Patients by the Intrapersonal Cross-Over Assessment Model, Am.J.Hematol.76;398-404 (2004).
5. Parsons J. Infusion line preferences of patients prescribed apomorphine for complex Parkinson's disease. British Journal of Neuroscience Nursing. December 2009.Vol 5 No 12.