PCA Vs. PCEA

I see both PCA's with dilaudid/morphine and PCEA's with fentanyl. It seems to me that PCA's are more effective for pain control. What is the deciding factor in whether the pt gets a pcea or pca????? And has anyone else noticed more effective pain relief with pca rather than pcea????

[purple_rose_3]

What is a PCEA?

[Tait, MSN, RN]

I feel my patients get better pain relief with a PCEA (epidual pain pump) than a PCA, however I feel they are more traumatic to wean from due to more consistent basal rates.

I prefer PCA's because we generally don't use basals on them, and I am not as nervous about an IV site vs and spinal site.

"My foot is numb"

"Ah crap...let me page the on call"

Tait

[EJSRN, BSN, RN]

patient controlled epidural anesthesia

[CABG patch kid, BSN, RN]

I see both PCA's with dilaudid/morphine and PCEA's with fentanyl. It seems to me that PCA's are more effective for pain control. What is the deciding factor in whether the pt gets a pcea or pca????? And has anyone else noticed more effective pain relief with pca rather than pcea????

I've noticed that patients get the epidurals more if they have a certain type of surgery but what type of surgery is not ringing a bell right now. I don't know if that helps but maybe it will jog your memory because mine seems to be shot right now, lol.

[sewnew]

patient controlled epidural anesthesia

So let me get this straight. The only difference between a PCEA and a TEC (tunneled epidural catheter) is that the patient controls the PCEA and the TEC just runs constantly? Correct?

[cherrybreeze, ADN, RN]

We don't use patient controlled epidurals. Plenty of *regular* epidurals, but they just have a basal rate and that's it.