Peer-reviewed veterinary case report
Transdermal buprenorphine for pain after cat surgery study
By Clark, Terrence P et al.·Published in Journal of veterinary pharmacology and therapeutics·2022·Nexcyon Pharmaceuticals, United States·View original on PubMed →
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Original publication title: Multicentered masked placebo-controlled phase 2 clinical study of an extended duration transdermal buprenorphine solution for postoperative pain in cats.
- Species:
- cat
Plain-English summary
A group of 115 cats undergoing surgery for reproductive sterilization and forelimb nail removal were given either a new transdermal pain relief medication (buprenorphine solution) or a placebo to see how well it controlled pain after surgery. The cats that received the higher dose of the medication experienced significantly less pain and needed less additional pain relief compared to those that received the placebo. Both doses of the medication were found to be safe, with only minor increases in body temperature noted. The higher dose was chosen for further studies due to its effectiveness and convenient application time before surgery.
People also search for: cat surgery pain relief · buprenorphine for cats · postoperative pain management in cats
Abstract
A prospective, double-masked, placebo-controlled, multicentered phase 2 clinical study was conducted to select the transdermal buprenorphine solution (TBS) dosage for the control of postoperative pain in cats. One-hundred fifteen (115) cats were randomized to a single topical dose of placebo solution, low-TBS dosage (1.91-2.07 mg/kg) or high-TBS dosage (4.27-4.88 mg/kg) prior to surgical reproductive sterilization in conjunction with forelimb onychectomy. The low- and high-TBS doses were applied 2-4 and 1-2 hours prior to surgery. Interactive pain assessments and physiological variables were quantified through 96 hours post-anesthetic recovery and rescue analgesia was administered any time that analgesia was considered inadequate. Cats requiring rescue analgesia were considered treatment failures. The estimated overall treatment success rates from generalized linear mixed effects model analysis were 0.10 (95% CI: [0.02-0.36]), 0.56 (95% CI: [0.25-0.83]), 0.71 (95% CI: [0.38-0.91]) in the placebo-, low-, and high-TBS dose groups, respectively. Success rates for both TBS treatment groups were superior to placebo. Adverse events were infrequent in all treatment groups although the postoperative body temperatures over the duration of the study were on average 0.31 (95% CI: [0.08-0.55]) and 0.30 (95% CI: [0.05-0.53]) °C higher in low- and high-TBS dose cats, respectively, compared to placebo. It is concluded that both the low- and high-TBS dosages were safe and effective. The high-TBS dosage resulted in a greater proportion of treatment successes over 96 h, had a more acceptable preoperative application time of 1-2 h prior to surgery, and was therefore selected for further study.
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Search related cases →Original publication on PubMed: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35790010/