The minimum amount of time that must expire between each dose of medication that is administered by patient-controlled analgesia (PCA). The PCA pump is inactivated during the lockout interval so that the patient cannot self-administer excessive amounts of drugs.
In patient-controlled analgesia (PCA), the number of minutes a patient must wait between demanded doses of pain relievers. During the lockout interval no medications are delivered to the patient no matter how many times a dose is requested. Typical lockout intervals in PCA are between 5 and 15 min.