Efficacy of opioids and opioids–adjuvants combination in burn pain treatment

Burn-induced pain is one of the most intense pain types experienced in human life. Pain treatment plays an important role in all the stages of burn trauma treatment since pain-induced changes can directly influence treatment results. The aim of this study was to investigate characteristics of burn pain, efficacy of morphine and morphine–gabapentin combination in burn pain treatment. The objectives: to investigate the quantitative and qualitative characteristics of burn pain during the shock period and interrelationships between pain intensity and the extent of burn and psychoemotional factors; to evaluate the opioid morphine requirements and incidence of dose-dependent adverse effects of opioids; to evaluate the efficacy of adjuvant gabapentin an adjunct to morphine in pain treatment for burn patients during the 72-hour period after injury; to investigate chronic pain in burn survivors following 6 months after injury: incidence, characteristics and its impact on health-related quality of life. Our study shows that burn pain is characterized by mixed sensory-emotional pain symptoms and its intensity correlates with the anxiety level. Gabapentin is a safe and effective adjunct in multimodal pain management in the shock period for burn patients. An opioid-sparing effect and reduce pain intensity, including neuropathic and affective pain components, scores were documented. The study demonstrates that more than 70% of burn survivors experience chronic pain 6 month after injury