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The formulation may be most useful for patients without baseline chronic pain and liver dysfunction who are undergoing an invasive procedures requiring post-operative pain management, according to David Reardon, MD, a multispecialty care clinical pharmacist from Yale-New Haven Hospital in New Haven, CT.
“This product is a great addition to our pain management arsenal, particularly for patients with predictable pain needs who are post-operative from minimally invasive or same day procedures requiring opioid therapy,” Dr. Reardon told Clinical Pain Advisor, noting the need to monitor total daily APAP intake and educate patients regarding use of concomitant analgesics.
Properties of ER oxycodone/acetaminophen
ER oxycodone/acetaminophen contains 7.5 mg of oxycodone HCl and 325 mg APAP per tablet. Although other ER opioid formulations are available, none offer a non-opioid component. The combination enables effective analgesia at lower doses of each constituent, thus minimizing the risk for adverse events.
The tablet’s dual-layer biphasic delivery mechanism also allows twice-daily administration, contrasting with IR formulations that require dosing every 4 to 6 hours. Oxycodone and APAP are released both immediately and through continuous delivery in the upper gastrointestinal tract.
“Many long-acting opioids have pharmacokinetic profiles that make them a poor choice in the acute setting, as well as only being formulated as a single agent,” Christopher Gharibo, MD, from the Center for the Study & Treatment of Pain at New York University, told Clinical Pain Advisor, noting that short-acting agents are also less than ideal for managing continuous pain.
“A long acting oxycodone-APAP combination is pharmacokinetically suitable for acute pain, provides the day long relief when needed while practically providing the patient with benefits of combination analgesia,” Dr. Gharibo stated.
