Sublingual morphine may be a suitable alternative for pain control in children in the postoperative period

The purpose of this pilot study was to compare the effects of sublingual morphine with intravenous morphine in the treatment of postoperative pain following adenotonsillectomy in children. Twenty-nine children scheduled for adenotonsillectomy were randomly assigned to group1 (n = 14) receiving 0.1 mg.kg(-1) sublingual morphine and group 2 (n = 15) 0.1 mg.kg(-1) intravenous morphine followed by 1 mg.kg (-1) diclofenac rectally in both groups after induction of anaesthesia. Postoperatively, time to first eye opening, sedation score, pain score, time for further analgesia requests and incidence of nausea and vomiting were recorded. There was no statistical significant difference in any of these parameters between the two groups. The results suggest that sublingual morphine may be a suitable alternative to various other routes of opioid administration in children, but further investigations of the sublingual route of administration. of opioids in children are required.