Immediate Pain Relief in Disaster Conditions

Extract

Disaster conditions can be characterized as rare, extraordinary and unpredictable events which threaten, injure or kill many people at the same time. The prime examples are earthquakes, floods, traffic or train accidents with hundreds of victims.

While emergency pain relief measures in a few injured victims can be managed individually and really effectively, the requirement for effective pain relief under disaster conditions is still a problem which is largely unsolved. The primary goal of immediate pain relief is the elimination of pain and anxiety which, in themselves, additionally threaten the elementary body functions.

The ideal analgesic drug for adequate pain relief under disaster conditions: 1) should provide the patient with effective analgesia under severe or moderate pain conditions; 2) should ideally sedate the emergency patient to a certain extent; 3) must be effective within a few minutes after intra-muscular, subcutaneous or intravenous administration; 4) should be sufficiently long-acting to avoid the necessity for re-administration several times; 5) should be applicable by paramedical as well as medical personnel; 6) should not have any depressant side effects on respiration and circulation, particularly under conditions of shock and trauma; and 7) should not require intensive monitoring of the patient. This drug has still to be discovered.

The intramuscular or subcutaneous administration of most drugs cannot be considered as methods of immediate effectiveness because most drugs are slowly absorbed, particularly under conditions of shock and trauma. Although the opiate drugs such as morphine, pethidine, and so forth, are obviously effective analgesics, particularly under conditions of severe pain, they cause respiratory and circulation depression, especially if the patient is suffering from hemorrhagic shock, dyspnea and hypoventilation due to thoracic trauma, and so forth.