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CompletedNCT02145975Updated May 23, 2014

Efficacy of Fentanyl to Reduce the Time of Severe Postoperative Pain Relief Compared to Morphine

A Phase 3 interventional study of Fentanyl and Morphine in Postoperative Pain, sponsored by Universidad de Antioquia. Completed at 1 site in Colombia. Open to participants aged 18 Years to 65 Years, including healthy volunteers. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2014-05-23.

Sponsored by Universidad de Antioquia · Phase 3, Interventional, and Treatment

Phase
Phase 3
Study type
Interventional
Enrollment
60
Allocation
Randomized
Ages
18 Years to 65 Years
Sex
All
01

Study summary

Fentanyl is a potent opioid, it is theoretically 100 times more potent that morphine and in severe acute postoperative pain acts faster than its congener (morphine ) for pain relief . In the literature there is no study that corroborates this theoretical assumption and proposes to compare which has fewer adverse effects. This drug produces effects similar to those reported for morphine but less magnitude and has the advantage that during the postoperative period respiratory depression, antitussive effect , gastrointestinal discomfort and physical dependence are manifested in a significantly less degree.

Trying to solve the management of postoperative pain relief , our objective is to determine by controlled clinical trial of superiority if in adult patients undergoing surgery , fentanyl reduces faster qualification time of severe pain to mild pain in the postanesthesia care unit compared to morphine.

Read the detailed description

Postoperative pain is a severe problem of high incidence worldwide. According to a systematic review of the literature by Dolin et al , the incidence of moderate to severe postoperative pain in 41% of patients were found , and of these , only 23% experienced relief of the same ( 1). International Association for Study of Pain defines pain as unpleasant sensory or emotional experience associated with actual or potential damage , or described in terms of such damage ( 3). The postoperative pain is not only important for to cause suffering or unpleasant experience to the patient, but also by involving harmful effects to the body ( 4). Thus, the secondary stress to pain triggers the release of a series of hormonal mediators and activation of the sympathetic nervous system in conjunction with surgical trauma and previous comorbidities of the patient, that cause dysfunction of multiple organ systems , including the cardiovascular (5, 6) , GI (7-10) and respiratory ( 11,12 ), among others , increasing the incidence of postoperative complications such as myocardial ischemia , atelectasis ( 25-75 % after abdominal surgery) , respiratory infections (pneumonia 1-3 % after cardiac surgery ) , ileus , deep vein thrombosis and cognitive dysfunction. Thus increases the morbidity and patient recovery is delayed. (5) Similarly it has been observed that postoperative pain increases stay in the post anesthesia care unit , readmission for pain management, and delayed rehabilitation and reintegration of patients to activities of daily living , with the consequent increase in costs (5) . Considering the above arguments , it is obvious that timely intervention generates profit problem on multiple levels.

While the management of postoperative pain should include issues ranging from education to the patient prior to its analgesic plan to late recovery period in the post-anesthesia care area is crucial. This is because it has been shown that poor control of postoperative pain ( 3) in the early hours is associated with higher levels of pain at 48 hours . There is growing interest in the question of why , despite the availability of different drugs and technological advances that allow a better understanding of the pathophysiology of pain , has not been achieved a greater impact on the incidence of this problem ( 13).

Opioids are the most important drugs for postoperative pain control. In the post-anesthesia care area , especially when faced with a patient with severe or unbearable pain (14,15) , the analgesic opioid titration is the most effective strategy for controlling postoperative pain ( 16). The most studied and used today opioid is morphine, which by its pharmacokinetic characteristics provides an important balance between speed of onset and maintenance of analgesia ( 17). However, there are other alternatives for analgesic titration , such as fentanyl , which has favorable pharmacokinetics to have a faster response and thus may shorten the time needed to decrease pain from severe to mild ( 14,15). There are comparative studies between fixed-dose fentanyl and morphine in the emergency services and some preliminary tests in the recovery area (18,19). The most recent of analgesic titration trials comparing appropriate doses of opioids to patient weight which would improve its efficacy and safety ( 20). The tests that are known to have used fentanyl and morphine compared fixed-dose and 10 minute intervals .

Fentanyl is a potent opioid, it is theoretically 100 times more potent that morphine and in severe acute postoperative pain acts faster than its congener (morphine ) for pain relief . In the literature there is no study that corroborates this theoretical assumption and proposes to compare which has fewer adverse effects. This drug produces effects similar to those reported for morphine but less magnitude and has the advantage that during the postoperative period respiratory depression, antitussive effect , gastrointestinal discomfort and physical dependence are manifested in a significantly less degree.

Trying to solve the management of postoperative pain relief , our objective is to determine by controlled clinical trial of superiority if in adult patients undergoing surgery , fentanyl reduces faster qualification time of severe pain to mild pain in the postanesthesia care unit compared to morphine.

02

Conditions studied

  • Postoperative Pain

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Keywords

  • Severe postoperative pain
  • Morphine
  • Fentanyl
  • Time to titration of pain
  • Pain and PACU
  • Anesthesiology
03

In context

Pain, Postoperative

5,093 studies on the registry are indexed under Pain, Postoperative; 1,140 are open to participants now.

This study's enrollment of 60 is below the median of 75 across 4,344 interventional studies indexed under Pain, Postoperative.

Browse Pain, Postoperative studies →

Lead sponsor

Universidad de Antioquia is the lead sponsor of 79 studies on the registry; 9 are open to participants now.

Counted across the registry records on this site, refreshed daily.

04

Who can participate

Ages eligible
18 Years to 65 Years
Sexes eligible
All
Accepts healthy volunteers
Yes

Inclusion criteria

  • Patients physical status I and IV, 18-65 years of age
  • Patients scheduled for surgery under general or regional anesthesia and fasting as defined in the fasting guidelines.
  • Patients whose accept and sign the informed consent of study.

Exclusion criteria

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Patients with severe respiratory depression given by a monitoring state indicating hypoxemia (oxyhemoglobin saturation below 90 %).

Patients with immediate postoperative hemodynamic instability given by bradycardia , hypotension or hypoperfusion states observed by clinical paleness, active bleeding, altered sensorium, and altered alertness not explained by effects of anesthetics .

Neurological disorders such as metabolic basis psychiatric disorders, mental retardation, congenital neurodegenerative conditions, hypoxic or ischemic related to aging that do not allow adequate evaluation of the analog scale pain assessment.

Patients with a history of tolerance to opioids for chronic use, which is defined to a period of 2 weeks.

Patients who have undergone epidural analgesia protocols, neuraxial and peripheral nerve blocks.

Patients with any alteration in neurological status. History of psychiatric disorders. Patient with known hypersensitivity or allergic reactions to opioids. Women who are pregnant or suspected to be.

05

Study design

Phase
Phase 3
Primary purpose
Treatment
Allocation
Randomized
Intervention model
Parallel assignment
Masking
Triple (Participant, Investigator, Outcomes assessor)
Enrollment
60 participants (actual)

Study arms

  • Experimental
    Fentanyl

    Procedure: Fentanyl for rescue of acute postoperative pain in the postanesthesia care unit Intervention: The nurse will administer 1 ug per kg during 5 seconds when the patient complain of pain (visual analog scale, VAS, ≥7). Immediately with the onset of drug administration a timer started; every 5 minutes the researcher assess the EVA and the drug will be administered if VAS \> 3, until the patient manifests as a lower pain VAS ≤ 3 (mild). The nurse in charge in the PACU will manage the drug and will take 100 ug of fentanyl which is diluted in 10 mL of normal saline leaving a 10μg per ml concentration, are not labeled and for the physical and chemical characteristics of both drugs (colorless) risks of unblinded is minimized.

    Drug: Fentanyl

  • Active comparator
    Morphine

    Procedure: Morphine for rescue of acute postoperative pain in the postanesthesia care unit Intervention: The nurse will administer 0,1 mg per kg during 5 seconds when the patient complain of pain (visual analog scale, VAS, ≥7). Immediately with the onset of drug administration a timer started; every 5 minutes the researcher assess the EVA and the drug will be administered if VAS \> 3, until the patient manifests as a lower pain VAS ≤ 3 (mild). The nurse in charge in the PACU will manage the drug and will take 10 mg of morphine which is diluted in 10 mL of normal saline leaving a 1 mg per ml concentration, are not labeled and for the physical and chemical characteristics of both drugs (colorless) risks of unblinded is minimized.

    Drug: Morphine

Interventions

  • DrugFentanyl

    The nurse will administer 1 ug per kg during 5 seconds when the patient complain of pain (visual analog scale, VAS, ≥7). Immediately with the onset of drug administration a timer started; every 5 minutes the researcher assess the EVA and the drug will be administered if VAS \> 3, until the patient manifests as a lower pain VAS ≤ 3 (mild). The nurse in charge in the PACU will manage the drug and will take 100 ug of fentanyl which is diluted in 10 mL of normal saline leaving a 10μg per ml concentration, are not labeled and for the physical and chemical characteristics of both drugs (colorless) risks of unblinded is minimized.

    Also known as: Opioids

  • DrugMorphine

    The nurse will administer 0,1 mg per kg during 5 seconds when the patient complain of pain (visual analog scale, VAS, ≥7). Immediately with the onset of drug administration a timer started; every 5 minutes the researcher assess the EVA and the drug will be administered if VAS \> 3, until the patient manifests as a lower pain VAS ≤ 3 (mild). The nurse in charge in the PACU will manage the drug and will take 10 mg of morphine which is diluted in 10 mL of normal saline leaving a 1 mg per ml concentration, are not labeled and for the physical and chemical characteristics of both drugs (colorless) risks of unblinded is minimized.

    Also known as: Opioids

06

What researchers measure

Primary outcomes

  1. Time in minutes of titration of fentanyl and morphine in reducing severe postoperative pain to mild pain

    Time in minutes of titration of fentanyl and morphine in reducing postoperative pain severe to mild pain with visual analog scale (≤ 3).

    Time frame: The outcome will be measured from the patient presents severe pain at the PACU until the time that presents mild pain and he does not need more rescue bolus assessed up to 4 hours

Secondary outcomes

  1. Stay time of patients in the postanesthetic recovery unit in hours.

    Stay time of patients in the postanesthetic recovery unit in hours.

    Time frame: The outcomes will be measured from the patient arrives at the PACU until he is discharged or transferred to the hospital room assessed up to 4 hours.

  2. Satisfaction with the analgesic management

    Satisfaction with the analgesic management received by the Likert scale in both groups at the time and 24 hours.

    Time frame: This outcome will be measured in the first hour at the PACU and postoperative 24 hours

  3. Cumulative dosis

    Cumulative dose of fentanyl vs morphine required for relief of pain in both groups.

    Time frame: The outcome will be measured from the patient experiences severe pain at the PACU and is given the first bolus rescue analgesic until is given last bolus rescue analgesic, assessed up to 4 hours

  4. Saturation of oxygen and arterial pressure

    O2 saturation and MAP in both groups every 5 minutes during the titration period.

    Time frame: The outcomes will be measured from the patient arrives at the PACU until he is discharged or transferred to the hospital room, assessed up to 4 hours.

07

Study locations

1 site
  • Antioquia University
    Medellin, Antioquia 05001000, Colombia
08

Updates

Tracking since Sep 25, 2026
No changes since tracking began. The registry record was last updated on May 23, 2014, before this site started recording changes on Sep 25, 2026. Its history is on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗
09

Registry details

Key details

Study ID
NCT02145975
Lead sponsor
Universidad de Antioquia
Responsible party
Olga Lucia Giraldo Salazar (MD, MSc, Universidad de Antioquia) — Principal investigator
First posted
May 23, 2014
Start date
Jan 2014
Primary completion
Apr 2014
Completion
May 2014
Last update
May 23, 2014

Study contacts

Adriana Cadavid, MD
principal investigator · Antioquia University

Oversight

Data monitoring committee
No
View the source record on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗

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