Epidural Methadone in Healthy Volunteers

Summary

Epidurally administered opioid pain medications are important tools for postoperative pain control, but each agent has its own limitations. Methadone's properties suggest that it may provide a long duration of pain control with minimal side effects related to spread to the brain or absorption into the blood stream. In this study, the investigators aim to compare the relative pain relieving effects, markers of side effects, and concentrations in the blood of epidurally administered methadone as compared to another long-acting opioid which is commonly administered epidurally, morphine.

Timeline

Start

2018-06-04

Primary completion

2019-08-28

Completion

2019-08-30

Publications

• Background Shir Y, Rosen G, Zeldin A, Davidson EM. Methadone is safe for treating hospitalized patients with severe pain. Can J Anaesth. 2001 Dec;48(11):1109-13. doi: 10.1007/BF03020377.
• Background Haroutiunian S, Kagan L, Yifrach-Damari I, Davidson E, Ratz Y, Hoffman A. Enhanced antinociceptive efficacy of epidural compared with i.v. methadone in a rat model of thermal nociception. Br J Anaesth. 2014 Jan;112(1):150-8. doi: 10.1093/bja/aet234. Epub 2013 Jul 10.
• Background Bernards CM, Shen DD, Sterling ES, Adkins JE, Risler L, Phillips B, Ummenhofer W. Epidural, cerebrospinal fluid, and plasma pharmacokinetics of epidural opioids (part 1): differences among opioids. Anesthesiology. 2003 Aug;99(2):455-65. doi: 10.1097/00000542-200308000-00029.
• Background Gedney JA, Liu EH. Side-effects of epidural infusions of opioid bupivacaine mixtures. Anaesthesia. 1998 Dec;53(12):1148-55. doi: 10.1046/j.1365-2044.1998.00636.x.

Drugs

Indications

No indication recorded.