Implementation of a piritramide based patient-controlled analgesia (PCA) as a standard of care is not effective for pain control in late abortion induction: a prospective cohort study from a patient perspective

Objective: To assess whether the implementation of patient-controlled analgesia (PCA) with piritramide using an automatic pump system under routine conditions is effective to reduce pain in late abortion inductions Design Prospective observational cohort study Setting Patients requiring medically indicated abortion induction from 14 weeks of pregnancy onwards between July 2019 and July 2020 at the department of Obstetrics and Prenatal Medicine of the Bonn University Hospital in Germany. Methods Evaluation of pain management after implementation of a PCA system compared with previous nurse-controlled tramadol-based standard under routine conditions. Patients answered a validated pain questionnaire and requirement of rescue analgesics was assessed. Pain intensity and satisfaction were measured on a ten-point numeric rating scale. Main Outcome Measure Maximal pain intensity Results Forty patients were included. Patients using Piritramide-PCA complained of higher pain sores than those in the standard group (6.90 (± 2.34) vs. 4.83 (± 2.87), (p < 0.05)). In both groups the level of satisfaction with the analgesia received was comparable (8.00 (± 2.45) vs 7.67 (± 2.62), (p = 0.7)). Patients in the PCA group suffered more nausea (63.2% vs 30% respectively, OR 4.0, 95% CI 1.05-15.20, p<0.05) and expressed more the desire for more analgesic support compared to the control group (OR 5.7 (1-33.25), p = 0.05). Conclusion Women with abortion induction after 14 weeks of gestation suffer from relevant severe pain, which requires adequate therapy. However, addition of PCA does not seem to bring any advantage in patients undergoing this procedure.