Spinal analgesia for advanced cancer patients: an update

In the nineties, spinal analgesia has been described as an useful means to control pain in advanced cancer patients. The aim of this review was to update this information with a systematic analysis of studies performed in the last 10 years. 27 papers pertinent with the topic selected for review were collected according to selection criteria. Few studies added further information on spinal analgesia in last decade. Despite a lack of a clinical evidence, spinal analgesia with a combination of opioids, principally morphine, and local anesthetics may allow to achieve analgesia in patients who had been intensively treated unsuccessfully with different trials of opioids. Some adjuvant drugs such as clonidine, ketamine, betamethasone, meperidine, and ziconotide may be promising agents, but several problems have to be solved before they can be used in the daily practice. In complex pain situations, spinal analgesia should not be negated to cancer patients, and oncologists should address this group of patients to other specialists.