morphine vs demerol in pancreatitis

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from nursing school i learned that demerol is better choice of pancreatitis than morphine because morphine causes spasm and does not help with pain.

But now when I am reading Kaplan book for preparation for NCLEX i see "meperedine is avoided because of toxicity, morphine is better"

I am confused. I went to google this topic but met different opinions.

What is right? Please, help

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Hi there !

In may Kaplan book wich is 12 th edition they say they use Demerol.

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Hi there !

In may Kaplan book wich is 12 th edition they say they use Demerol.

mine is 13 edition and it says "use morphine b-se meperidine is highly toxic"

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I would do a reasonable amount of research and then take the most recent recommendaton. This is why many people recommend that you only use one resource for study. There are several differences among the various resources and it is not always clear which is the latest recommendation or whether the recommendation has a solid basis.

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Demerol is best. But toxicity is an issue with elderly and Demerol.

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Specializes in being a Credible Source.

I've always considered these dumb questions given that nurses don't write for pain meds.

FWIW, our docs use Dilaudid for pancreatitis pain and only use Demerol in patients with morphine allergies.

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i aksed the kaplan instructor and this is her response...

In the past, Demerol was the drug of choice because it was believed that morphine caused spasms of the spinchter of Oddi. Further research does not support this conclusion. It is now recommended that morphine is the drug of choice because it is now believed that the metabolites from Demerol can cause CNS irritation and possible cause seizures.

Regards,

Kaplan's Nursing Team

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