PCA Vs. PCEA

What is a PCEA?

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

patient controlled epidural anesthesia

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.

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?

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