Preoperative Oral Methadone for Patients Undergoing Cardiac Surgery: Reduction of Postoperative Pain

• Status: Completed
• Trial end date: 2017-12-01
• Target enrollment: 0
• Participant gender: All

Summary

Oral medications like gabapentin and acetaminophen are commonly given to patients prior to surgery to provide balanced anaesthesia. Intravenous methadone has been shown to decrease postoperative pain as well as postoperative nausea and vomiting, which are known barriers to discharge. Oral methadone would be a convenient alternative to give as a preoperative medication with its bioavailability approaching 80%. No clinical trials to date have explored the utility of oral methadone as a preoperative analgesic to improve postoperative outcomes. Current literature shows preoperative IV methadone reduces opioid consumption in the perioperative period for cardiac surgeries; therefore, investigators hypothesize that preoperative oral methadone will also reduce postoperative pain and opioid consumption in patients undergoing sternotomy for cardiac surgery.

• Phase: Phase 2
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers?: No

Details

• Lead Sponsor: University of Saskatchewan
• Treatments: Methadone

Criteria

Inclusion Criteria:

• presenting for elective first-time CABG cardiac surgery with anticipated extubation within 12 hours

Exclusion Criteria:

• < 18 years of age

• preoperative renal failure requiring dialysis or serum creatinine greater than 176 µmol/L

• significant hepatic dysfunction (liver function tests more than twice the upper limit of normal)

• ejection fraction less than 30%

• corrected QT interval (QTc) on ECG > 440ms for men and 450ms for women

• pulmonary disease necessitating home oxygen therapy

• preoperative requirement for inotropic agents or intra-aortic balloon pump to maintain hemodynamic stability

• emergency surgery

• allergy to methadone

• use of preoperative opioids or recent history of opioid abuse