Post-surgical patients usually get an IV pump with small doses of pain medication that can be self-administered. The bad news is the system requires needles, tubes and sometimes malfunctioning machines.
“The concept is good, it is just a little old and cumbersome,” said Dr. Gene R. Viscusi, of Thomas Jefferson University Hospital.
Viscusi, and several colleagues, tested the IV-Patient Controlled Analgesia (PCA) against a new credit card-looking device that is placed on the upper arm to administer pain medication through the skin. The results of the study were published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
“The findings of the study showed that the new device, E-Trans Fentanyl PCTS compared very favorably with the traditional IV-PCA, head to head they looked almost identical,” Viscusi said.
Thomas Reed took part in the study. After prostate surgery three years ago, he was given the pain “patch.”
“There's no pain involved. You only hit a little button and it administered your medication. There was no discomfort, no nothing involved in it. It was as simple as one, two, three,” Reed said.
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Pain patch
The patch was tested against the traditional IV.
 
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“It is able to deliver a potent pain reliever through the skin with a very, very tiny electric current at the demand of the patient,” Viscusi said.
Both types of pain systems keep post-operative patients pain free, but the “patch” device allows patients more mobility in their recovery and demands less time from the nursing staff.
Several companies are currently making versions of the “pain patch,” which is under FDA review.
