Timecost of Intranasal Versus Intravenous Analgesia in Traumatic Pain

Prehospital treatment of acute traumatic pain is common in military practice. Analgesics are usually administered intravenously (IV). Research from the civil prehospital environment shows that obtaining IV access can be difficult and time consuming, delaying onset of treatment. The challenges for obtaining IV access in the military prehospital setting are even bigger, for example in combat environments. However, this has not been assessed.

Current guidelines also offer alternative routes of administration for analgesics, for example intranasal (IN) administration. IN administration is a fast, easy and effective route of administration. This study determines whether IN administration of analgesia is faster and leads to increased healthcare provider satisfaction compared to IV administration in patients with acute traumatic pain in a simulated military prehospital environment.