The purpose of this study was to evaluate the need for pain medication and the adequacy or inadequacy of the analgesia achieved, in children with cancer who died while in terminal care. Of the 100 pediatric patients with cancer treated at the Children's Hospital, University of Helsinki, Finland, who died during 1987-1992, 70 died while in terminal care. The underlying diseases were leukemia (N = 25), solid tumors (N =24), and brain tumors (N = 21). Of these children, 60% were treated at home, 29% at hospital, and 11% at both. The assessment of pain during terminal care was retrospective and included analysis of the patients' records and a structured interview of the two parents separately. In total 62 children (89%) received regular pain medication, with a mean duration of 17 days in children with leukemia, 58 days in those with solid tumors, and 66 days in those with brain tumors. Medication was usually started with anti-inflammatory drugs, then changed to oral opioids when deemed necessary, and finally to parenteral opioids. Parenteral morphine was administered to 40 children, to 30 as a continuous infusion through a central venous line. The dose of morphine was 0.8 mg/kg/day at the start and was increased to 4.9 (range, 0.2-55) mg/kg/day. Of the 62 children who received regular pain medication, the majority (81%) had adequate analgesia. In 19%, analgesia had been suboptimal. In conclusion, the vast majority of children with cancer need regular pain medication while in terminal care. This can be administered adequately at home, even if continuous intravenous infusions are required.

The effect of clonidine (4.5 micrograms kg-1) on haemodynamics and hormonal stress responses was evaluated in 21 female patients undergoing breast surgery. The standardized general anaesthesia included diazepam as premedicant, thiopentone, enflurane, N2O, fentanyl and vecuronium. Venous plasma concentrations of noradrenaline, adrenaline, growth hormone, vasopressin, and cortisol were assayed at various times before, during and after surgery. Clonidine attenuated the sympathoadrenal response; arterial blood pressure and heart rate increases in association with intubation were lower in clonidine-premedicated patients. Noradrenaline levels were lower throughout and 3 h after surgery in the clonidine group (P less than 0.05). Adrenaline levels were lower in this group 2 min after intubation (P less than 0.05). Growth hormone, vasopressin and cortisol plasma levels were increased at the end of and after surgery, with no differences between the groups. In spite of the effect on sympathoadrenal response, clonidine did not have any significant additive anxiolytic effect. Statistically significant differences were not found as to need for postoperative analgesics.

Sixty-three patients (ASA 1-2), scheduled for elective surgery under general anaesthesia, were randomly given either oral clonidine (225-375 micrograms) + diazepam (5 15 mg), cimetidine (300 mg the night before and 300 mg in the morning) + diazepam or only diazepam for premedication. Anaesthesia was induced with thiopentone and maintained with N2O + O2 (70:30), enflurane and fentanyl. Vecuronium bromide was used as a muscle relaxant. The sleep dose of thiopentone was significantly smaller in the patients pretreated with clonidine than in the other groups. The mean maximal increase in heart rate was lowest in the clonidine-pretreated patients, but there were no significant differences in the mean arterial pressure changes associated with intubation. Before and just after intubation and in the recovery room, the arterial pressures were lowest in the patients pretreated with clonidine. During anaesthesia, marked bradycardia (less than or equal to 45 beats min-1) did not occur more often when clonidine was used, but in the recovery room there were statistically significantly more patients with bradycardia in the clonidine group than in the other groups. On the electrocardiogram (ECG) during the endotracheal intubation, the incidence of bigeminy was higher in the diazepam patients (5/20) than in the cimetidine patients (2/20) and the clonidine patients (0/23). There were significantly more gastric content samples with a pH above 2.5 in the cimetidine group than in the other groups, and clonidine patients did not differ from diazepam patients in this respect. The high incidence of bradycardia with the concomitant hypotension may limit use of this drug to highly selected patients.