Why the study?
Do methylnaltrexone and alvimopan improve opioid-induced bowel dysfunction and prevent postoperative ileus in patients requiring opioid-based analgesia?
Do methylnaltrexone and alvimopan improve opioid-induced bowel dysfunction and prevent postoperative ileus in patients requiring opioid-based analgesia?
Methylnaltrexone and alvimopan represent a promising new class of compounds for managing opioid-induced bowel dysfunction and postoperative ileus.
May support consideration for opioid-induced bowel dysfunction; leaves open confirmation in randomized trials before practice change.
Methylnaltrexone and alvimopan are two new and potentially useful agents in the management of opioid-induced bowel dysfunction and prevention of postoperative ileus. Both agents have promising prokinetic properties and appear to be capable of reversing the effects of opioids on delayed gastrointestinal transit. This article reviews currently available published literature to provide an overview of the clinical trials and to provide insight for the potential use of these agents for patients requiring opioid based analgesia. These compounds represent a new class of compounds that may impact the therapeutics for opioid induced bowel dysfunction as well as postoperative ileus.
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Neyens et al. (2007) studied this question.
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