[Patient controlled analgesia in a university hospital.].

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES The rapid development seen in recent years in surgical and anesthetic techniques allowed for an increased indication of invasive procedures. At the same time, with the aging of the population, the postoperative recovery period became the focus of major concern for the healthcare team. For such, new analgesic techniques were developed, among them, Patient Controlled Analgesia (PCA). In Brazil, the Acute Pain Service (SEDA) of the Anesthesiology Department, Botucatu Medical School - UNESP, has been using PCA for many years. Aiming at verifying the quality of the service provided, this research has evaluated the efficacy and safety of the technique, in addition to identifying and characterizing patients submitted to PCA. METHODS Participated in this retrospective study 679 patients treated by SEDA with the PCA method only, during a 3-year period. Patients were randomly included in the study with no restrictions concerning age, gender and type of surgery, considering only the possibility of PCA. The following parameters were evaluated: gender, age, type of surgery, pain score, treatment duration, analgesic drugs used, administration route, side effects and complications. RESULTS The PCA technique was used in 3.96% of patients submitted to surgical procedures and in 1.64% of all hospitalized patients. Thoracic surgeries were the most frequent procedures and accounted for 25% of patients. Morphine was the most commonly used analgesics (54.2%) and the epidural route was the most frequent route of administration. Mean verbal numeric scale was 0.8 (0-10), and side effects were present in 22.4% of treated patients. CONCLUSIONS Results were considered excellent in terms of quality of analgesia, although with the incidence of some side effects. The PCA technique was widely accepted by the medical specialties of the hospital.