Introduction. Chronic pain is a complex medical condition and a lot of people suffer from it.

Buprenorphine is a well-known opioid medication and it can be used to treat chronic pain.

It has a lot of medical application and it is well-studied^1,2.

In this manuscript we analyse a case-report and we describe the main features on the buprenorphine, defining the possible clinical use of this opioid during patients’ treatment.

Case-report

An 88-year-old Caucasian woman was visited because she had constant diffuse pain localized at the level of the back and lower extremities due to polyartrhosis.
After a low-rate response to the initial treatment, it was thought to introduce transdermal 10 mcg/h buprenorphine in addition to other medications.

The patient started to respond very well to the treatment with a decrease in the three pain scales after two days from the use of this drug of eight points for the NRS and VAS scale and mild pain for the VRS scale (NRS 2/11, VAS 1/10 and VRS mild pain)

Literature review and conclusion

Buprenorphine is well-tolerated in several types of populations, such as elderly and those with hepatic or renal dysfunctions^3,4.

Several formulations of buprenorphine are available on market and each of them have the potentials to reduce chronic pain and provide less side-effects.

Buprenorphine has fewer side-effects compared to other agonist opioids and it can be extensively and securely used to treat non-malignant pain⁵.

Bibliography

1. Pergolizzi J v., Raffa RB. Safety and efficacy of the unique opioid buprenorphine for the treatment of chronic pain. J Pain Res. 2019; 12: 3299–317.
2. Rudolf GD. Buprenorphine in the Treatment of Chronic Pain. Phys Med Rehabil Clin N Am. 2020; 31: 195–204.
3. Coe MA, Lofwall MR, Walsh SL. Buprenorphine Pharmacology Review: Update on Transmucosal and Long-acting Formulations. J Addict Med. 2019; 13: 93–103
4. Böhme K. Original Article Buprenorphine in a Transdermal Therapeutic System-A New Option.
5. Wolff RF, Aune D, Truyers C, et al. Systematic review of efficacy and safety of buprenorphine versus fentanyl or morphine in patients with chronic moderate to severe pain. Curr Med Res Opin 2012; 28: 833–45.