Effectiveness of opioid rotation in the control of cancer pain: The ROTODOL Study

2014

Objective: To assess the effectiveness of opioid rotation (OR) to manage cancer pain. To describe the adverse events (AEs) associated with OR. Setting: Thirty-nine tertiary hospital services.Patients: Sixty-seven oncological patients with cancer-related pain treated at outpatient clinics.Intervention: Prospective multicenter study. Pain intensity was scored using a Numerical Rating Scale (NRS) of 0-10. Average pain (AP) intensity in the last 24 hours, breakthrough pain (BTP), and the number of episodes of BTP on the days before and 1 week after OR were assessed. The pre-OR and post-OR opioid were recorded. The presence and intensity of any AEs occurring after OR were also recorded.Results: …