Cancer of prostate with osseous metastases prolonged pain relief with very high-dose epidural morphine

Abstract

Osseous metastases may cause severe unremitting pain that may be difficult to control. We report a case of severe pain due to metastases of prostate cancer into the vertebral column, which was well controlled for 93 days with b.i.d, bolus epidural morphine injections. The starting dose was 80 mg/day, which was increased during the 93-day period to 540 rag/day without producing any side effects.