Peer-reviewed veterinary case report
Long-acting fentanyl patch controls dog pain after surgery as well
By Linton, D D et al.·Published in Journal of veterinary pharmacology and therapeutics·2012·Nexcyon Pharmaceuticals Inc., United States·View original on PubMed →
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Original publication title: The effectiveness of a long-acting transdermal fentanyl solution compared to buprenorphine for the control of postoperative pain in dogs in a randomized, multicentered clinical study.
- Species:
- dog
Plain-English summary
A study looked at how well a new long-acting transdermal fentanyl solution worked for controlling pain after surgery in dogs compared to buprenorphine, a common pain medication. Involving 445 dogs of various breeds, the research found that the fentanyl solution was just as effective as buprenorphine in managing pain for up to four days after surgery. Both treatments had minimal side effects, making the fentanyl option a safe and convenient choice for veterinarians. This new method could help improve pain management for dogs recovering from surgery.
People also search for: dog postoperative pain relief · fentanyl for dogs after surgery · buprenorphine vs fentanyl for dogs
Abstract
A prospective, double-blinded, positive-controlled, multicenter, noninferiority clinical study was conducted to evaluate the safety and effectiveness of a long-acting transdermal fentanyl solution (TFS) for the control of postoperative pain. Four hundred forty-five client-owned dogs of various breeds were randomly assigned to receive a single dose of TFS (2.6 mg/kg [∼50 μL/kg]) (N = 223) applied 2-4 h prior to surgery or buprenorphine (20 μg/kg) (N = 222) administered intramuscularly 2-4 h prior to surgery and every 6 h through 90 h. There were 159 (35.7%) males and 286 (64.3%) females ranging from 0.5 to 16 years of age and 3 to 98.5 kg enrolled. Pain was scored using the modified Glasgow Composite Pain Scale with an a priori dropout criteria of ≥ 8 (20 maximum score). The one-sided upper 95% confidence interval of the mean difference between fentanyl and buprenorphine treatment failures was 5.6%, which was not greater than the a priori selected margin difference of 15%. Adverse events attributed to either treatment were minimal in impact and were approximately equal between groups. Sustained plasma fentanyl concentrations provided by a single pre-emptive dose of TFS are safe and effective and are noninferior to repeated injections of buprenorphine in controlling postoperative pain over 4 days. This long-acting fentanyl formulation provides veterinarians with a novel, registered option for the control of postoperative pain in dogs that improves dosing compliance and potentially mitigates the disadvantages of oral, parenteral, and patch delivered opioids.
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Search related cases →Original publication on PubMed: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22731776/