• Takako Fujita, Motoyo Iwade, Keiko Hamada, and Makoto Ozaki.
• Department of Anesthesiology, Tokyo Women's Medical University, 8-1, Kawata-cho, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo, Japan.
• J Anesth. 2018 Aug 1; 32 (4): 585-591.

PurposeWe retrospectively studied perioperative management of patients receiving opioid treatment for cancer pain to facilitate establishing a standard policy for our institute.MethodsSubjects were patients who had been administered strong opioids for cancer pain and had undergone surgery with general anesthesia. We divided the patients into groups C and D. Group C was comprised of patients who had been administered their baseline opioids continuously during the perioperative period, and group D of those who had discontinued baseline opioid use during this period.ResultsWe identified 70 evaluable patients, 36 in group C and 34 in group D. The intraoperative anesthesia courses were similar, being uneventful, in all cases. With respect to postoperative adverse effects within 24 h after awakening from anesthesia, severe adverse effects (additional administration of more than four analgesics and intense agitation) were significantly more frequent in group D than in group C (12 vs 1, respectively. p = 0.004). Univariate analysis revealed that baseline opioid discontinuation was the only factor associated with severe adverse effects [odds ratio 12.6, 95% confidence interval (1.49-105.8), p = 0.01].ConclusionDiscontinuation of baseline opioid increased adverse effects in the early postoperative period, which were attributed to exacerbation of early postoperative pain.

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