Children and adults with malignancies often require opioids for pain, which commonly
cause constipation. The resulting effect on quality of life can be significant.
1
As no drugs have been approved for patients with malignancies and opioid-induced
constipation, several drugs approved for opioid-induced constipation in noncancer
pain (including opioid antagonists such as prolonged-release naloxone combined with
oxycodone, methylnaltrexone, naloxegol, naldemedine, or alvimopan) are chosen when
laxatives fail.
2
The goal of this rapid review was to determine the effectiveness of off-label agents
in treating opioid-induced constipation, specifically in patients with malignancies.To read this article in full you will need to make a payment
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: April 02, 2018
Footnotes
Funding: Elsevier Evidence-Based Medicine Center.
Conflicts of Interest: TAS is employed by Elsevier.
Authorship: All authors had access to the data and played a role in writing this manuscript.
Identification
Copyright
© 2018 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
