Intranasal Sufentanil: Effective for Emergency Pain Relief

In patients with severe traumatic pain, intranasal sufentanil was found to be as effective as standard-of-care intravenous morphine for pain relief, according to a new study published this week in PLOS Medicine by Marc Blancher of Grenoble Alpes University Hospital, France, and colleagues.

Intravenous morphine is the most commonly used strong analgesic for relieving acute pain in the emergency room, but the need to get an IV line started before administration limits its rapid use. In the new study, researchers randomized 136 patients who presented to the emergency departments of six hospitals across France. Patients ranged in age from 18 to 75 years old and had traumatic pain self-evaluated as at least a six out of ten on a rating scale. 69 patients received intranasal sufentanil plus an intravenous placebo and 67 patients received intravenous morphine plus an intranasal placebo.