Avtor/Urednik		Centeno, Carlos; Angustias Portela, Maria; Hribernik, Nežka
Naslov		Opioid switch
Tip		članek
Vol. in št.		Letnik 4, št. 2
Leto izdaje		2011
Obseg		str. 4-8
ISSN		1844-7058
Jezik		eng
Abstrakt		A small group of patients with cancer pain will continue to suffer despite receiving appropriate treatment or will experience side effects from the opioids, which may limit the use of higher doses. Earlier experiences have shown that when a patient does not respond to a specific type of opioid, they may respond better to a different opioid. Opioid rotation or opioid switching is the name that has received this therapeutic approach. Starting with a clinical case of rectal cancer and sacral pain treated with high doses of opioid, the article reviews the experiences of the authors with switching to methadone in a long stay palliative care unit and the published experiences of Mercadante with the opioid switching protocol of a acute palliative care Unit at a University Hospital. The patient presented was successfully changed to methadone with pain relief. Several considerations of this procedure and practical consequences for the clinical practices are discussed. Specialists in frequent contact with advanced stage cancer patients should develop more experience in opioid switching.
Proste vsebinske oznake		opioidi paliativna oskrba onkološka bolečina neželeni učinki opioid palliative care cancer pain side effects