Transdermal buprenorphine in pain management--experiences from clinical practice: Five case studies.

Buprenorphine is a semi-synthetic opioid derived from thebaine. The transdermal formulation of buprenorphine has been available in Belgium for 3 years, during which time the Pain Clinic of the St Elisabeth of Verviers Hospital has gained experience in the use of transdermal buprenorphine for the treatment of moderate-to-severe pain. This paper presents four cases of chronic, non-malignant pain, and one case of chronic cancer pain. By starting patients on low doses and slowly titrating upwards, transdermal buprenorphine matrix patches provided effective analgesia and were well tolerated. Low doses of transdermal buprenorphine were created by cutting the smallest available matrix patch (35 mug/h) into halves or quarters. The initial dose was then gradually titrated upwards to the dose needed for optimum pain relief by the patients. No problems were encountered in switching patients from prior analgesic therapy with other opioids to transdermal buprenorphine.