Hydromorphone Injections Can Quickly Relieve Intractable Pain

By Dr. Forest Tennant

I recall the time over a decade ago when Anazao Laboratory in Tampa, Florida informed me they had developed ultra-high potency (50 mg/ml) hydromorphone for palliative pain care. Anazao Labs was well aware of my patients’ needs, since they formulated my endocrine medicinals. 

In contrast to the other injectable opioids, Anazao’s hydromorphone formulation could be injected subcutaneously under the skin rather than intramuscularly.  The injection required a very small amount of fluid (.1 to .2 ml) that was administered with an allergy or insulin syringe.

My patients’ pain was called “intractable” to meet California’s Medical Board guideline and legal definitions.  The criteria for patients to enter my clinic was a determination that there was a high risk of death within one year unless opioid treatment could be administered. The top causes of intractable pain were adhesive arachnoiditis, traumatic brain injury, severe neuropathies (CRPS), autoimmune disease, and post-cancer care.

I recall the first patient to whom I prescribed ultra-high potency hydromorphone.  She was not receiving adequate pain relief with long-acting and breakthrough opioids, so she was referred for an intrathecal implanted device (pain pump) for opioid administration.  Due primarily to its cost and insurance reasons, she could not obtain this expensive treatment, so I chose to experiment with the new ultra-high potency hydromorphone. 

It worked remarkably well.  In fact, she soon found she didn’t require a long-acting or breakthrough opioid. Using the new hydromorphone formulation, she dropped her daily morphine milligram equivalent (MME) dosage from over 500 to less than 100 MME per day.

After success with this patient, I prescribed the hydromorphone formulation to other patients on high dose oral opioids, who could not obtain intrathecal opioids or an implanted electrical stimulator.  All the patients tolerated and adjusted well to it.  Ultra-high dose hydromorphone became an alternative to intrathecal opioids at my pain clinic.

When I later prescribed the hydromorphone formulation to other patients with intractable pain, I found that I could eliminate or reduce their use of high dose opioids through oral, patch or sublingual administration, and obtain equal or superior pain relief.

I have since retired from clinical practice, but still believe this is a major reason for using ultra-high potency hydromorphone for patients in severe pain.  My initial experience told me that the hydromorphone formulation could be an alternative to standard intractable pain care, which is the combined use of a long-acting opioid with a short-acting opioid for breakthrough pain. That therapy has shortcomings, because long-acting opioids suppress endocrine levels, which can lead to a wide range of health problems.

My procedure in prescribing hydromorphone was to instruct both the patient and a live-in family member on proper injection technique, secure storage, and maintaining sterility.  At the time I closed my clinic, I probably had about 2 dozen patients who successfully used this innovative formulation.

I have come to some conclusions that go against common beliefs about opioid therapy.  First and foremost, high potency hydromorphone can usually substitute in most cases for long-acting opioids such as OxyContin, transdermal fentanyl, and methadone.  Effective pain relief occurs within minutes after the injection, so the patient doesn’t have a proclivity to follow the opioid dose with a sedative or neuropathic drug such as a benzodiazepine. 

Seldom did my patients use over 3 to 4 injections a day.  To date, I know of no overdoses occurring.  I attribute this to hydromorphone’s rapid, potent, short-acting activity, which doesn’t invite the use of other drugs (including alcohol), to help the patient achieve pain relief.  Blood levels of the hydromorphone don’t stay elevated longer than about two hours, which protects against overdose. Pain relief remains much longer, however, likely because it is hydrophilic in neurologic tissues.

In summary, I have found ultra-high potency hydromorphone to be a significant advance in palliative pain care for intractable pain patients.  It has proven to be a bonafide alternative to intrathecal opioid delivery and to high opioid dosages necessary when combining the use of long and short acting opioids.  Its unique properties seem to reduce the risk of overdose. 

Families and patients can be trained to safely and effectively use this medicinal to relieve suffering from the most severe forms of intractable pain.  Unfortunately, it is an under-recognized and underused treatment for the palliative care of intractable pain patients.

Forest Tennant, MD, DrPH, is retired from clinical practice but continues his research on the treatment of intractable pain and arachnoiditis. Readers interested in learning more about his research should visit the Tennant Foundation’s website, Arachnoiditis Hope. You can subscribe to its research bulletins here.   

The Tennant Foundation gives financial support to Pain News Network and sponsors PNN’s Patient Resources section. 

FDA Warns About Unapproved Drugs in Pain Pumps

By Pat Anson, PNN Editor

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is warning patients and healthcare providers about serious complications that can occur when using medications not approved for use with intrathecal pain pumps. The agency says it has received “numerous reports” of pump failures, dosing errors, infections and other safety issues.

Pain pumps are implanted under the skin, usually near the abdomen, and deliver medication through a catheter directly into spinal fluid to treat chronic pain. They require a healthcare provider to periodically refill the pump with pain medication. The pumps are generally used as a last resort for patients whose pain is not adequately managed by oral medication, surgery and other treatments.

Currently, there are only two FDA-approved medications for intrathecal pain pumps; Infumorph (a morphine sulfate solution) and Prialt (a sterile solution).

Drugs approved for intrathecal administration must meet additional safety standards because the spinal cord and brain tissue are highly sensitive to preservatives or infectious organisms such as bacteria or viruses.

The FDA has found that some patients are being treated with medications that are not approved for pain pumps – including hydromorphone, bupivacaine, fentanyl and clonidine – as well as compounded medications.

One reason patients may not be using Infumorph is that it is currently listed on the FDA’s drug shortage list. Some patients may also believe the unapproved drugs are more effective, although the FDA says they are still too risky.  

“While medical devices, such as implanted pumps that deliver medication directly into the spinal fluid, have the potential to play an important role in treating pain, their use must be judicious and their instructions for use must be carefully followed. This is especially true when it comes to implantable pumps that deliver analgesic medicine directly into the nervous system,” FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb, MD, said in a statement.

The FDA says the failure rate of the pumps more than doubles when unapproved medications are used. Some drugs may contain preservatives that can damage the pump tubing or cause corrosion. Dosing errors can also occur because the software on pain pumps is only designed to calibrate doses with approved medications.

“FDA acknowledges that some patients being treated for pain may not be adequately managed by medicines approved for use with these pumps; however, the use of medicines not approved with the implanted pumps are associated with additional risks,” the agency said. “The FDA recommends that health care providers review the implanted pump labeling to identify the medicines and medicine concentrations approved for use with the specific pump.”

Patients and providers who experience an adverse event with an implanted pump or suspect one is having problems are encouraged to file a voluntary report through MedWatch, the FDA Safety Information and Adverse Event Reporting program.

Opioid Medication Made My Chronic Pain Worse

By Robert Gripp, Guest Columnist

After 18 years of largely untreatable chronic pain, I found myself with an intrathecal pain pump delivering huge quantities of fentanyl to my spine every day. And I was still in debilitating pain.

I was on my second pain pump (they have to be replaced about every seven years) when the pump began to act up and I started into withdrawal. I immediately saw my new doctor, who had taken over my care when my original doctor retired at age 75.

He had the pump manufacturer’s representative there to help figure out what was going on. It turned out the pump was unreliable, and the doctor recommended it be powered off. I was sent home with minimal meds to detox.

Detox was the absolute most horrible experience I have ever encountered, but at the end I was virtually pain free. The reason was that I had developed opioid-induced hyperalgesia (OIH), which increased my sensitivity to pain.

ROBERT GRIPP

OIH is a well-documented syndrome, but my doctors had missed the hallmark signs of it, which are changes in the location and characteristics of your pain, as well as little or no relief from pain when the dosage is increased.

I am now 63 years old and have a new life. I have some pain, but nothing that is not well controlled with little or no opioids.

I do not believe that all patients who take high doses of opioids experience hyperalgesia, nor does the literature support any such conclusion. My purpose is to caution anyone on high doses for an extended period. If it is not helping you or your pain is worse after increasing the dosage, you should be aware of this condition and its potential.

Overzealous lawmakers and over-reaching insurance companies who want to limit opioids due to the addiction crisis don’t have a clue. Limiting opioids is making it harder for pain patients who really need them. But my experience is also something that needs to be better understood and the condition of hyperalgesia needs to be more publicized.

Our tendency is to believe more pain medicine is better when our pain worsens. I have to wonder how many people are out there in tremendous pain being caused by the very medicine given them to abate it. I am afraid it is way too many.

I hope my story helps someone get a new life, without having to stumble onto it as I did.

Robert Gripp lives in Texas.

Pain News Network invites other readers to share their stories with us. Send them to editor@painnewsnetwork.org.

The information in this column should not be considered as professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. It is for informational purposes only and represents the author’s opinions alone. It does not inherently express or reflect the views, opinions and/or positions of Pain News Network.