This site is intended for healthcare professionals

Sign in
Go to /sign-in page

You can view 5 more pages before signing in

Intramuscular opioids

Last reviewed dd mmm yyyy. Last edited dd mmm yyyy

Authoring team

The intramuscular injection of opioids has been a popular form of treating postoperative pain. However, the subjective patient benefit has been less than desired.

This is because:

  • the pharmacokinetics and pharmacological effects of opioids vary greatly among patients - the minimum effective plasma concentration shows an eight fold range in the same surgical population; this is problematical as the therapeutic index for opioids is small
  • fear of adverse effects and misunderstanding of the risk of dependency have resulted in intramuscular opioids being administered too infrequently

The situation has improved now that alternative routes of administration are more widely used.

Create an account to add page annotations

Create a free account

Add information to this page that would be handy to have on hand during a consultation, such as a web address or phone number. This information will always be displayed when you visit this page

The content herein is provided for informational purposes and does not replace the need to apply professional clinical judgement when diagnosing or treating any medical condition. A licensed medical practitioner should be consulted for diagnosis and treatment of any and all medical conditions.

Connect

Copyright 2024 Oxbridge Solutions Limited, a subsidiary of OmniaMed Communications Limited. All rights reserved. Any distribution or duplication of the information contained herein is strictly prohibited. Oxbridge Solutions receives funding from advertising but maintains editorial independence.