 Normally, cytokine production in and around the wounded area increases in order to fight infection and control healing (and, possibly, to control pain), but pre-incisional morphine administration (0.1 mg/kg to 10.0 mg/kg) reduced the number of cytokines found around the wound in a dose-dependent manner.The authors suggest that morphine administration in the acute post-injury period may reduce resistance to infection and may impair the healing of the wound.Morphine can be taken orally, sublingually, bucally, rectally, subcutaneously, intranasally, intravenously, intrathecally or epidurally and inhaled via a nebulizer.