Onkológia 6/2010

First experience with oropharyngeal mucositis pain treatment with the use of transdermal buprenorphine

Oropharyngeal mucositis (OM) is a significant and painful complication in patients after high-dose chemotherapy followed by autologous or allogeneic stem cells transplantation. Transdermal phentanyl has been used in OM pain treatment with promising results. We analyzed efficacy of OM pain treatment with the use of transdermal buprenorphine (TB) in 51 patients after allogeneic stem cells transplantation. In 82 % patients the baseline intensity of OM pain did not progressed within the first 3 to 5 days of the treatment with TB 35 µg/hour or 52,5 µg/hour. The significant decrease of the pain intensity was observed within 5 to 7 days. The treatment was generally well tolerated. TB might be considered for OM pain management in patients with high risk from severe and long-duration OM. Definite recommendation, however, can not be made yet and further observations and trials are needed.

Keywords: mucositis, pain, buprenorphine, stem cells transplantation.