Respiratory depression after morphine in the elderly |
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| Authors: | A. P. DAYKIN D. J. BOWEN D. A. SAUNDERS J. NORMAN |
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| Affiliation: | A.P. Daykin, MRCP, FFARCS, Senior Registrar, D.J. Bowen, FFARCS, Consultant, Department of Anaesthetics, Royal Hampshire County Hospital, Winchester;D.A. Saunders, PhD, FFARCS, Senior Lecturer, J. Norman, PhD, FFARCS, Professor of Anaesthesia, Shackleton Department of Anaesthetics, Southampton General Hospital, Southampton. |
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| Abstract: | The effects of intravenous morphine (10 mg/70 kg) on the ventilatory response to CO2 were studied in two groups of subjects, young (18-29 years) and old (66-85 years), prior to elective surgery. In both groups morphine caused a significant depression of respiration as judged by a reduction in the slope of the CO2 response curve, a reduction in the calculated ventilation at an end tidal CO2 tension of 7.3 kPa, a rise in resting end tidal CO2 and a rise in the CO2 threshold. There were no significant differences between the two groups in the changes produced by the drug, suggesting that acute respiratory depression after a single intravenous injection of morphine is similar in old and young people. |
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| Keywords: | Analgesics narcotic morphine Measurement techniques CO2 response |
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