All patients who receive opioids round the clock for the treatment of cancer pain should also be offered “rescue doses” of short half-life opioids on an as needed basis to treat remaining pain or breakthrough pain. The rescue dose is usually equivalent to a dose ranging from one-tenth to one-sixth of the 24-hr baseline dose.
In order to evaluate the extent to which rescue doses were being used properly, we conducted a survey focusing on the trend in rescue dose ratio (ratio of rescue dose to 24-hr baseline dose) with time among departments at the Shizuoka Cancer Center. Our survey covered 4997 short-half-life opioid prescriptions used as rescue doses at the Shizuoka Cancer Center for the 30 months from September 2002 to February 2005.
The rescue dose prescribed in the palliative care department was closer to that of the recommended rescue dose ratio than in other departments. We also found that rescue doses determined in the 2nd half of the period of our study were closer to the proper doses than in the 1st half.
