PhD defence M.V. (Mark) Koning

The administration of spinal morphine is used for postoperative pain relief since 1979. In the recent decades, it was used less because of a mismatch between the duration of postoperative pain and pain relief. Nowadays, surgical techniques has changed, leading to a shorter duration of pain. Spinal morphine matches the pain profile of contemporary surgery. We investigated the use of intrathecal morphine in modern-day bowel surgery, prostate surgery and hip fracture surgery. It showed that patients had less additional analgesic use and lower pain scores when spinal morphine was used. On top of that, patients were earlier fit for discharge after bowel surgery and had a lower incidence of postoperative confusion after hipfracture surgery. These two finding needs to be confirmed in further studies, but this thesis demonstrated that spinal morphine is a fitting method of analgesia for modern day surgery.

The public defence will take place at the Prof. Andries Queridoroom, 3rd floor Education Center, Erasmus MC. The ceremony will begin exactly at 15.30 PM. In light of the solemn nature of the ceremony, we recommend that you do not take children under the age of 6 to the first part of the ceremony