Stability and Analgesic Efficacy of Di-acetyl Morphine (Diamorphine) Compared with Morphine in Implanted Intrathecal Pumps In Vivo

Abstract

The objective of this study was to investigate di-acetyl morphine as an alternative opioid analgesic for use in implanted intrathecal drug delivery systems because of its greater solubility through evaluation of its stability in vivo and analgesic efficacy in the period between pump refills. Contents of intrathecal drug delivery system reservoirs (SynchroMed, Medtronic, Inc., Minneapolis, MN) that had been filled with di-acetyl morphine dissolved in saline (21), bupivacaine (9), or in both bupivacaine and clonidine (19) were sampled in vivo between 1 and 125 days after refill. The samples were assayed for di-acetyl morphine and its breakdown products by micellar electrokinetic capillary chromatography. Prospective daily numerical pain scores between pump refills, using 11-point Likert scales, on 24 patients with implanted SynchroMed pumps (12 delivering di-acetyl morphine in saline, 12 were delivering morphine in saline) were collected. Results showed that di-acetyl morphine immediately started to decay to mono-acetyl morphine in implanted Synchromed pumps with half-life of 50 days. Mono-acetyl morphine decayed to morphine with a maxima estimated at 125 days. There was no clinically significant change in average weekly pain scores for up to ten weeks in either group (range, 2.5 to 2.8 for diamorphine and 2.7 to 3.1 for morphine) (2-way repeated ANOVA, F(9,220)=0.98, n.s.). We conclude that di-acetyl morphine and its breakdown products, 6 mono-acetyl morphine and morphine, provide similar analgesia to morphine alone when administered by intrathecal pump for a period of at least ten weeks and may be a useful alternative when a more soluble agent is favored.