Sublingual Versus Endovenous Fentanyl for the Prehospital Analgesia in Patients With Limb Trauma on the Slope

Sublingual Versus Endovenous Fentanyl for the Prehospital Analgesia in Patients With Limb Trauma on the Slope - a Double-blind Randomized Prospective Study

The purpose of this study is to determine the non-inferiority of the efficacy for prehospital analgesia of sublingual administered fentanyl versus endovenous administered fentanyl for patients with limb trauma on the slope

Fentanyl endovenous (ev) is an excellent analgesic drug for pain relief in acute traumatic pain. Fentanyl sublingual (Abstral ®) is an excellent analgesic drug in the breakthrough cancer pain relief in oncologic patients.

The immediate (less than 10 minutes) effect and the ease of administration of sublingual fentanyl is a feasible drug administration for immediate analgesia in remote areas such as mountain rescue missions eg. the slope.

Patients will be recruited according to a randomized list to fentanyl ev or fentanyl sublingual versus placebo oral or placebo ev.

Safety issues like control of vital signs will be warranted.

Inclusion Criteria:

• Trauma on the limbs with a pain score of 4 or more on the slope
• ASA I - II

Exclusion Criteria:

• children (< 18 years)
• cognitive impairment: brain injury, intoxication, analgesia
• weight under 50 kg and more than 100 kg
• other injuries like chest trauma with respiratory insufficiency, suspect liver or spleen injury, amputation;
• chronic analgesic use or misuse
• allergy
• fear of needles
• pregnancy
• speech difficulties