Transdermal fentanyl patches versus patient-controlled intravenous morphine analgesia for postoperative pain management.

Background: Acute and severe pain is common in patients postoperatively and should be correctly managed. In the past years studies on preparing better postoperative pain control have resulted in development of postoperative pain management guidelines. Perhaps, one of the major improvements in managing postoperative pain is the development of the patient-controlled analgesia systems (PCA), especially through intra venous (IV), extradural and transdermal routes, which has resulted in marked improvements in acute postoperative pain management.