Abstract
Background: It is important to select the suitable type of opioid and its dose for pain relief in terminal cancer patients. At our palliative care unit, low dose oxycodone injection (LD-OXJ) is often initiated by continuous subcutaneous infusion depending on each patient's condition and treatment history. So we reviewed these patients' data retrospectively. Methods: From January to December 2014, we collected the data of the patients who started to be treated with LD-OXJ, defined as OXJ dose under 12.5mg/day. We retrospectively investigated the efficacy of pain relief and duration of LD-OXJ treatment, defined as the period for patients who were treated with LD-OXJ effectively. We also calculated duration of survival after LD-OXJ initiation. Results: The number of collected patients was 36 (average age 77.8) and OXJ rapidly provided relief of pain to each patient. All patients continued to receive OXJ without switching to the other opioid and the average duration of survival after LD-OXJ initiation was 209.5 (10.6-1203.5) hours. Although some patients are required to increase OXJ dose, 23 patients (63.8%) maintained pain relief with LD-OXJ. The average duration of LD-OXJ treatment was 179.3 (10.6-1203.5) hours and that period covered 86.2% of survival period. All patients had no adverse reactions by OXJ such as respiratory depression, skin disorders and gastrointestinal disorders. Conclusion: Starting low dose oxycodone by continuous subcutaneous infusion is suggested to be one of possible options for opioid introduction in terminal cancer patients, because LD-OXJ was efficacious in pain relief for most of survival duration without safety concern in this analysis.
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