Trial reportInternational wound journal2012
Topical morphine gel in the treatment of painful leg ulcers, a double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trial: a pilot study.
Trial report in International wound journal, 2012. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 11 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
11 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 30 citations in OpenAlex.
- Interventions to reduce pain at dressing change of chronic wounds: a mixed-methods systematic review.Health technology assessment (Winchester, England) · 2026Pooled it
- Dressings and topical agents for treating venous leg ulcers.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2018Pooled it
- Topical application of morphine for wound healing and analgesia in patients with oral lichen planus: a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study.Clinical oral investigations · 2018Trial
- Article
- Peptide-Based Approaches for Pain Relief and Healing in Wounds.International journal of molecular sciences · 2026Review
- Clinician Attitudes towards Analgesia for Chronic Limb Threatening Ischaemia: A Survey of Vascular Specialists to Inform a Topical Morphine Trial.EJVES vascular forum · 2026Article
- Hydrogel-Based Formulations to Deliver Analgesic Drugs: A Scoping Review of Applications and Efficacy.Biomedicines · 2025Review
- Systematic review of topical interventions for the management of pain in chronic wounds.Pain reports · 2023Review
- Use of topical morphine gel in epidermolysis bullosa wounds-A series of case studies.International wound journal · 2023Article
- Topical morphine for treatment of cancer-related painful mucosal and cutaneous lesions: a double-blind, placebo-controlled cross-over clinical trial.Archives of medical science : AMS · 2019Article
- Skin Matters: A Review of Topical Treatments for Chronic Pain. Part Two: Treatments and Applications.Pain and therapy · 2015Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Chronic painful wounds, a major health problem, have a detrimental impact on the quality of life due to associated pain. Some clinical reports have suggested that local administration of morphine could be beneficial. The aim of this study was to evaluate the analgesic effect of topically applied morphine on chronic painful leg ulcers. Twenty-one patients were randomly assigned to receive either morphine or placebo in a randomised, placebo-controlled, crossover pilot study. Each patient was treated four times in total. Pain was measured by the visual analogue score (VAS) before application of gel, directly after and after 2, 6, 12 and 24 hours. Although an overall, clinically relevant, reduction of pain was observed upon treatment with morphine, the difference was not statistically significant. Morphine reduced pain scores more than placebo on treatment occasions 1 and 2. The difference was statistically significant only 2 hours after dressing on the first treatment occasion. Thus, our study did not demonstrate a consistent and globally significant difference in nociception in patients treated with morphine. However, the relatively small number of patients included in our study and other methodological limitations makes it difficult for us to draw general conclusions regarding efficacy of topically applied morphine as an effective treatment for some painful ulcers. Further studies are warranted to evaluate the value of topically applied morphine in the treatment of patients with chronic painful leg ulcers.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.