Sufentanil versus Fentanyl: Efficacy and Patient Satisfaction with Intrathecal Pain Management

Objectives: This study compared fentanyl vs. sufentanil in intrathecal pain pumps. H1: both reduce patient subjective pain ratings. H2: sufentanil is more effective than fentanyl. H3: overall satisfaction with pain control is greater with sufentanil. Materials/Method: This is an archival study of patients in tertiary pain management (N= 97, mean age = 58.77, standard deviation = 14.88). Pain was measured using the subjective units of discomfort scale. Satisfaction with pain control/relief was measured by asking patients each visit if they are satisfied with pain management and is recorded in a “yes”/ “no” manner. Pain ratings were analyzed with repeated measures analysis of variance and satisfaction was analyzed with chi square. Results/Discussion: Sufentanil was found to be marginally more effective, but both medications controlled a significant degree of variance in pain reduction over time. A significantly greater number of patients maintained on sufentanil were satisfied with care than patients on fentanyl.