title: [Cancer breakthrough pain. Indications for rapidly effective opioids].
abstract: The pharmacotherapy of tumor pain has two main aims: to deliver an adequate basic analgesia using long-term retarded opioid medication and an effective treatment of tumor breakthrough pain using rapidly effective non-retarded opioids. Breakthrough pain is characterized by a sudden onset and rapid increase in the pain level and should be treated with correspondingly rapidly effective opioids. The pharmacological characteristics of previously available and routinely prescribed non-retarded opioids do not always correspond in oral galenics to the demands resulting from the definition of tumor breakthrough pain. As alternatives to these substances five different rapidly effective fentanyl preparations are now available for transmucosal administration.
authors.affiliation: Klinik für Anaesthesiologie, Zentrum für Schmerztherapie und Palliativmedizin, Universitätsklinikum Heidelberg, Im Neuenheimer Feld 131, Heidelberg, Germany. jens.kessler@med.uni-heidelberg.de
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Kessler
authors.forename: H J
authors.initials: HJ
authors.lastname: Bardenheuer
mesh_terms: D000281:Administration, Intranasal; D000286:Administration, Sublingual; D000287:Administration, Topical; D000336:Aerosols; D000701:Analgesics, Opioid / Q000008:administration & dosage / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D059390:Breakthrough Pain / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000209:etiology; D003692:Delayed-Action Preparations; D005283:Fentanyl / Q000008:administration & dosage / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D006801:Humans; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000150:complications*; D010147:Pain Measurement
chemical_list: D000336:Aerosols; D000701:Analgesics, Opioid; D003692:Delayed-Action Preparations; D005283:Fentanyl