FOR RELEASE: Tuesday, October 11, 1999

PROSTATE SURGERY PROTOCOL SPEEDS RECOVERY, LETS MEN
GO HOME NEXT DAY
Methadone Finds New Use in the O.R.

Evelina Worwag, M.D. ASA ANNUAL MEETING

CONTACT:
Denise M. Jones
Philip S. Weintraub
(847) 825-5586
Oct. 9-13 (214) 853-8010
[email protected]

DALLAS -- Anesthesiologists working with surgeons have developed a patient care protocol that allows men to go home only one day after prostate cancer surgery without "pushing them out the door" or compromising the quality of their care in any way. The protocol also creates a new use for an old pain-killing compound.

A key facet of the protocol involves the use of methadone for postoperative pain, Evelina Worwag, M.D., assistant professor of anesthesiology and critical care medicine at the University of Chicago and director of the acute pain service at Weiss Memorial Hospital, said.

The protocol marks the first significant use of this medication in the operating room in nearly two decades, Dr. Worwag reported at the annual meeting of the