Pain Management in ED for Incision and Drainage of Abscess
Status:
Withdrawn
Trial end date:
2011-12-01
Target enrollment:
Participant gender:
Summary
Patients presenting with painful procedures in the Emergency Department (ED) have been shown
to frequently have inadequate pain management. The incision and drainage (I&D) of an abscess
is a common procedure that is viewed by many emergency physicians as only requiring a
localized anesthetic for pain management. However, it has been documented in previous
research that there can be disconnect between what emergency medicine physicians interpret as
painful and what patients experience as pain. A trial will be conducted to focus on use of
intramuscular (IM) Fentanyl as an intervention to help alleviate pain associated with the
incision and drainage of an abscess. This is a procedure that rarely receives systemic
opioids.
This double blinded protocol will randomize a total of 50 patients patients with abscesses to
receive either a combination of Fentanyl IM followed by subcutaneous (SC) local bupivicaine
analgesia or Normal Saline IM followed by SC local bupivicaine analgesia. Only opiate naive
patients will be enrolled. The primary outcomes studied are patients overall satisfaction
with procedure, and patients level of pain associated with the procedure.