Safety and tolerability of fentanyl iontophoretic transdermal system: Findings from a pooled data analysis of four clinical trials

Harold S. Minkowitz, MD; Joel Yarmush, MD; Malcolm T. Donnell, MD; Peter H. Tonner, MD; C. V. Damaraju, PhD; Roman J. Skowronski, MD, PhD

doi:10.5055/jom.2010.0018

Authors

Harold S. Minkowitz, MD
Joel Yarmush, MD
Malcolm T. Donnell, MD
Peter H. Tonner, MD
C. V. Damaraju, PhD
Roman J. Skowronski, MD, PhD

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5055/jom.2010.0018

Keywords:

tolerability, pain management, postoperative, fentanyl ITS, patient-controlled analgesia

Abstract

Acute postoperative pain remains inadequately managed. Although patientcontrolled analgesia (PCA) represents a significant advance in postoperative pain management, drawbacks may include invasiveness and the potential for programming errors. The analysis presented here is based on pooled patient-level safety data from four multicenter, randomized, active-controlled trials that evaluated the safety and tolerability of the needle-free, preprogrammed fentanyl HCl iontophoretic transdermal system (ITS) versus morphine intravenous PCA for postoperative pain management; the results for patients who received fentanyl ITS are presented here. Adverse events (AEs), serious AEs, and clinically relevant respiratory depression were assessed across patient subpopulations categorized by age. A total of 1,288 patients, including 356 elderly (>65 years of age) patients, received fentanyl ITS following surgery. The most commonly reported AEs included nausea, fever, vomiting, headache, anemia, pruritus, and hypotension. The incidence of AEs was generally lower for elderly patients than for patients 65 years or younger. Application-site reactions were reported for 18.6 percent of patients using fentanyl ITS and were generally mild to moderate in severity. No cases of clinically relevant respiratory depression were reported for patients who received fentanyl ITS. The results demonstrate that fentanyl ITS is safe and well tolerated for postoperative pain management for patients overall and for subpopulations divided according to age.

Author Biographies

Harold S. Minkowitz, MD

Department of Anesthesiology, Memorial Hermann Memorial City Medical Center, Houston, Texas.

Joel Yarmush, MD

Department of Anesthesiology, New York Methodist Hospital, Brooklyn, New York.

Malcolm T. Donnell, MD

Department of Anesthesiology, Methodist Hospital, Houston, Texas.

Peter H. Tonner, MD

Department of Anaesthesia and Intensive Care Medicine, Klinikum Links der Weser, Bremen, Germany.

C. V. Damaraju, PhD

Ortho-McNeil Janssen Scientific Affairs, LLC, Titusville, New Jersey.

Roman J. Skowronski, MD, PhD

ALZA Corporation, Mountain View, California.

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