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Precision Analgesia for Cardiac Surgery

Precision Perioperative Methadone Use in Adult Cardiac Surgical Patients to Reduce Opioid Use Adverse Effects While Improving Analgesia and Outcomes

Status
Not yet recruiting
Phases
Unknown
Study type
Observational
Source
ClinicalTrials.gov
Registry ID
NCT05612399
Enrollment
400
Registered
2022-11-10
Start date
2026-10-01
Completion date
2027-05-01
Last updated
2026-09-10

For informational purposes only — not medical advice. Sourced from public registries and may not reflect the latest updates. Terms

Conditions

Analgesia, Cardiac Surgery

Brief summary

The proposed research is an important extension of an ongoing perioperative personalized analgesia and intravenous opioid pharmacogenetic research. This research focuses on two of the most commonly used oral opioid analgesics, oxycodone, and methadone in elderly adults undergoing cardiac surgery.

Detailed description

Cardiac surgery patients often experience significant acute postoperative pain, and untreated or undertreated pain has consequences. Each year, 900,000 painful cardiac surgeries occur in the US alone. Pain associated with cardiac surgery results from surgical incision, sternal retraction, internal mammary artery harvesting, saphenous vein removal, placement of mediastinal and chest drains, sternal wires, and release of pro-inflammatory mediators after tissue injury. One study reported that 49%, 62%, and 78% of patients reported severe pain at rest, movement, and coughing, respectively after coronary artery bypass surgery (CABG). Another study showed that 61.4% of patients undergoing cardiac surgery reported moderate to severe pain. Inadequate pain treatment is common in cardiac surgery due to health care providers' fears of causing cardiorespiratory compromise. Poor pain control can trigger sympathoadrenal responses leading to cardiac arrhythmias and myocardial ischemia, restrict mobility to cause venous thrombosis, impair clearance of secretions leading to pulmonary complications such as atelectasis and pneumonia, decrease patient satisfaction and predispose to the development of chronic, persistent surgical pain (CPSP). Improving clinical practice by shifting paradigms: Our research is transformative and will evolve current reactive clinical practice towards proactive precision methods based on genetic risks for surgical pain and ORADE in elderly vulnerable population. This is the first effort to move in the direction of personalizing perioperative opioid use with precise dosing to improve safety and efficacy in cardiac surgery. Preoperative genotyping-based clinical decisions are expected to support clinical implementation in real-world settings. Importantly, investigators will be able to reach beyond the current best-in-class outcomes with precision multi-dose methadone analgesia based on proactive genetic risk identification to maximize safety and efficacy of opioids in all cardiac surgical patients and positively impact socio-economic outcomes in the future. By addressing these critical barriers, this research will help physicians identify patients at risk and improve the safety and efficacy of opioids and surgical pain management while preventing OD, misuse, overdose, and deaths.

Interventions

None listed

Sponsors

Kathirvel Subramaniam
Lead SponsorOTHER

Study design

Observational model
COHORT
Time perspective
PROSPECTIVE

Eligibility

Sex/Gender
ALL
Age
60 Years to 110 Years
Healthy volunteers
No

Inclusion criteria

* Elderly cardiac surgical patients over 60 years of age

Exclusion criteria

* Methadone allergy * Morbid obesity (BMI \>40kg/cm2) * Severe sleep apnea * Severe pulmonary disease requiring oxygen therapy * Preoperative mechanical circulatory support * Emergency surgery * Liver disease (liver enzymes more than two times normal) * End-stage renal disease requiring dialysis * Serum creatinine more than 2.0mg

Design outcomes

Primary

MeasureTime frameDescription
Determine Genetic Factors - Opioid Related Adverse Events (RD)Immediately post-surgery during hospital stayRespiratory depression will be measured with binary yes/no responses obtained either via self-report from the patient or reported by the clinical care staff.
Determine Genetic Factors - Opioid Related Adverse Events (PONV)Immediately post-surgery during hospital stayPost-operative nausea and vomiting will be measured with binary yes/no responses obtained either via self-report from the patient or reported by the clinical care staff.
Determine Genetic Factors - Opioid Related Adverse Events (Excessive Sedation)Immediately post-surgery during hospital stayExcessive sedation will be measured with binary yes/no responses obtained either via self-report from the patient or reported by the clinical care staff.
Determine Genetic Factors - Uncontrolled severe painImmediately post-surgery during hospital stayWe postulate that specific CYP2B6, ABCB1, OPRM1, FAAH, and ORM1 genetic variants identify patients at risk for poor pain relief and ORADE with methadone in the immediate post-surgical period. Pain will be measured by the Numerical Rating Scale (NRS) in which 0 = no pain at all and 10 = worst pain imaginable. This will be self-reported responses by the patient.

Secondary

MeasureTime frameDescription
Opioid use post-operativelyPost-operative Day 5 to 6-months post-operativeOpioid usage will be recorded via SOAPP-R, a 24-item validated opioid assessment. A score of 18 or higher is considered positive.
Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information SystemPost-operative Day 5 to 6-months post-operativeThe PROMIS-29 v2.0 will be collected for this outcome measure. The PROMIS survey is scored by the following T-Score Cut Points: 20-55 = better health, 55-60 = mild, 61-69 = moderate, and 71+ = worse health. The general population mean = 50 (SD = 10).
Incidence of Chronic Persistent Surgical Pain (CPSP)Post-operative Day 5 to 6-months post-operativeCPSP will be obtained via patient-self report as yes/no responses for follow-up assessments. This measure will be reported as mean(SD) for positive CPSP subjects.

Countries

United States

Contacts

CONTACTAlisha Maslanka, BS, CCRC
maslankaaa@upmc.edu412-864-6779
CONTACTCarly Riedmann, BS
riedmannca@upmc.edu412-623-4147
PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATORKathirvel Subramaniam, MD, MPH

University of Pittsburgh

STUDY_DIRECTORAmy Monroe, MPH, MBA

University of Pittsburgh

Outcome results

None listed

Source: ClinicalTrials.gov · Data processed: Sep 11, 2026