Patient-controlled intranasal analgesia: effective alternative to intravenous PCA for postoperative pain relief.

Purpose: To investigate whether the nasal route for fentanyl administration in patient-controlled analgesia (PCA) provides as effective postoperative analgesia as intravenous PCA.

Methods: Patient-controlled intranasal or intravenous analgesia with fentanyl was investigated in 48 patients (ASA I-III) on the day of surgery (orthopedic, abdominal or thyroid) in a prospective, randomized, double-blind, double-dummy study. Fentanyl was given in a bolus of 25 microg for intranasal and 17.