What is Fentanyl (Duragesic) and how is it used?
Fentanyl, administered in the Duragesic Patch, is a powerful narcotic painkiller for serious pain. It is generally only prescribed for long-lasting relief from intense, persistent and chronic pain. The Duragesic patch should only be used when less potent medicines have proved ineffective and pain needs to be controlled 24/7. Duragesic patches are a transdermal system providing 72 hours of continuous systemic delivery of this potent opioid analgesic. Duragesic is available in 4 color-coded patch strengths: 25 mg, 50 mg, 75 mg, and 100 mcg/hour. As with all pure opioid agonists, there is no analgesic ceiling effect with fentanyl, thus there are no dose-limiting adverse effects, and dosages can be gradually increased until adequate pain relief is achieved. Duragesic should never be used in the following situations: • where the right dosage hasn’t been established in advance – for instance, after an operation or an accident. • for mild or intermittent pain that responds to other medication
