Traditional intravenous, or IV, pumps keep surgery patients comfortable and pain free, but they can be cumbersome. A new study shows a high-tech pain patch is not only more convenient, but works as well as IV pumps.

With an IV pump, patients can give themselves small doses of pain medication when needed. But the IV system involves needles, tubes and sometimes malfunctioning machines.

"The concept is good, it is just a little old and cumbersome," said Dr. Gene Viscusi, of Thomas Jefferson University Hospital in Philadelphia.

Viscusi and his research team tested the IV patient-controlled analgesia, or PCA, against an experimental device that is placed on the upper arm to administer pain medication through the skin. The skin patch, which resembles a credit card, is called the fentanyl hydrochloride patient-controlled transdermal system, or PCTS.

"The findings of the study showed that the new device, E-Trans Fentanyl PCTS, compared very favorably with the traditional IV-PCA; head to head, they looked almost identical," Viscusi said.

In the study, about 74 percent of patch users and 77 percent of pump users rated their pain-relief methods as good or excellent, which researchers say is almost a statistical dead-heat.

The results of the study, which included 636 surgery patients at 33 North American hospitals, are published in this week's issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association. It was funded by Alza Corp., which is seeking federal approval for its product.

Thomas Reed took part in the study. After prostate surgery three years ago, Reed was given the pain patch.

"You only hit a little button and it administered your medication," Reed said. "There was no discomfort, no nothing, involved in it. It was as simple as one, two, three."

Viscusi said the patch delivers a potent pain reliever through the skin with a very, very tiny electric current at the demand of the patient.

Both types of pain systems keep post-operative patients pain free, but the patch device allows patients more mobility in their recovery and demands less time from the nursing staff, Viscusi said.

Several companies are currently making versions of the pain patch. It remains under review by the Food and Drug Administration.

Study Abstract