An adhesive patch that uses a tiny electric current to deliver pain medication through the skin does the job about as well as conventional intravenous devices, researchers said Tuesday.
The patch resembles a credit card and is affixed to the patient’s upper arm or chest after surgery. Both the patch and some intravenous delivery systems allow the patient to self-medicate by pressing a button, according to a company-funded study.
The study was financed by ALZA Corp., which developed the transdermal drug delivery device with another Johnson & Johnson subsidiary, Ortho-McNeil Pharmaceuticals Inc.
“(The patch) is able to deliver a potent pain reliever through the skin with a very, very tiny electric current at the demand of the patient,” said study author Gene Viscusi of Thomas Jefferson University Hospital in Philadelphia. “This is a miracle of miniaturization.”
His trial of 636 patients following major surgery assigned them either to the patch with the painkiller fentanyl hydrochloride or an intravenous system that delivered morphine. Of those wearing the patch, 74 percent rated it good to excellent at relieving pain in the 24 hours after surgery while 77 percent of those getting morphine intravenously rated that method highly.
The report, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, said patches allow patients to move about more freely and may replace cumbersome intravenous systems that require a needle, tubes and a pump.
The fentanyl patch system is under review by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.