Evidence suggests that use of intrathecal hydrophilic opioids reduces postoperative pain scores & opioid consumption in the first 24 hours. There is however a lack of guidance regarding choice & dosage of various opioids for non-obstetric patients

Since 2019 there has been a shortage of diamoprhine in the UK. The obstetric Anaesthesia Association issued a commentary based on the nice guidelines for caesarean section in 2021. The recommendations include the use of alternative opioids for intrathecal use as well as hourly monitoring of patients for respiratory depression for 24 hours following administration.

Despite diamorphine being the opioid of choic for non-obstetric cases there exists no similar recommendations to guide this change in practice.

This project aims to describe the organisational response to the national diamorphine shortage in the management of non-obstetric peri-operative pain whilst simultaneously documenting individual changes to clinical practice as a result of the shortage.

GABACUTE was PainTrains first national project aiming to identify how anaesthetists are using gabapentin and pregablin periopertively & their reasons for doing so.

The project completed in 2019 and analysis is underway - we intend to submit the project for publication soon.

For any queries about the GABACUTE project please get in touch