Patient controlled analgesia(PCA) is a relatively new technique and has been successfully used for a broad range of surgical fields. PCA allows patient to self-administer intravenous analgesics and has advantages over conventional methods of pain control, not only in terms of quality and safety of sedation, but also acceptability to the patients. The purpose of this prospective study was to compare the effectiveness of intravenous patient controlled analgesia(IV-PCA) and conventional opioid analgesics intramuscular injection as needed(prn) for postoperative analgesia after augmentation mammoplasty. Thirty nine patients scheduled for augmentation mammoplasty were randomly divided into two groups: PCA group(20 patients) and opioid analgesics intramuscular injection group(19 patients). The degree of analgesia was assessed at postoperative 12 hour on operation day and every 8 hours on day 1 and 2 postsurgery using five point pain scale. Side effects of analgesia were checked on day 2 postsurgery. Data from the pain scores were analyzed in two ways: mean daily and overall scores using t-test. PCA group shows significantly low mean daily and overall scores than opioid IM injection as needed group.
  Patient contolled analgesia is more effective than conventional opioid IM injection as needed(prn) in postoperative pain control after augmentation mammoplasty.