Minor burns analgesia. A comparison between opiate based analgesia and non-opiate based analgesia.

Report By: Krishna Chatterjee - Medical Student
Institution: Manchester Royal Infirmary
Current web editor: Minnie Alexander - Senior Information Officer
Date Submitted: 1st March 2000
Date Completed: 4th December 2000
Last Modified: 4th December 2000
Status: Blue (submitted but not checked)

Three Part Question

In a [patient presenting with painful minor burns] is there [any effective alternative] to [opiate analgesia]?

Clinical Scenario

A 25 year old male presents at casualty with partial thickness burns to his arm and elbow. The visual analogue scale shows 80mm on the 100mm scale. Do you give opiate analgesia or another method of pain control.

Search Strategy

Medline 1966-1/7/98 using the OVID interface.
(exp burns ti, ab, sh) AND (exp analgesia ti, ab, sh) LIMIT to human AND English language.

Search Outcome

54 papers were found. 5 clinical trials were found from these, 1 could not be obtained, of the remaining 4 trials none were relevant.

Clinical Bottom Line

There was no evidence found to show there is any effective alternative to opiate analgesia. Local advice should be followed.