A meta-analysis in 2004  showed that drugs of this class applied through skin are effective and safe in treating acute painful conditions for 1 week. Whether this is also true of this patc is not known. Flector patch had also been studied for ostearthritis and localized pain of rheumatic conditions.

Flector has not been adequately studied for pain of metastatic cancer. The oral version, Voltaren, allows the morphien dose to be decreased. However, it can cause liver damage. How well it works as a patch for painful metastases has not been studied.  It is not a completely innocuous drug, especially for a cancer patient who is on chemotherapy and more susceptible to side effects, or with possible liver metastases.

For the Professional version see here

OXYCONTIN tablets should be taken at 12-hourly intervals. The dosage is dependent on the severity of the pain, and the patient’s previous history of analgesic requirements. Increasing severity of pain will require an increased dosage of OXYCONTIN tablets using the 5mg, 10mg, 20mg, 40mg or 80mg tablet strengths, either alone or in combination, to achieve pain relief. The correct dosage for any individual patient is that which controls the pain and is well tolerated, for a full 12 hours. There is no ceiling dose and so patients should be titrated to pain relief unless unmanageable adverse medicine reactions prevent this. The usual starting dose for opioid naïve patients or patients presenting with severe pain uncontrolled by weaker opioids is 10mg 12 hourly, or 5mg 12 hourly for patients with renal or hepatic impairment. The dose should then be carefully titrated, as frequently as once a day if necessary, to achieve pain relief. It is not uncommon for a patient to require higehr doses.

Riley J, Eisenberg E, Müller-Schwefe G, Drewes AM, Arendt-Nielsen L. Oxycodone: a review of its use in the management of pain.Curr Med Res Opin. 2008 Jan;24(1):175-92.

Oxycodone: Pharmacological profile and clinical data in chronic pain management minervamedica.it. Minerva Anestesiologica, 2005;71:451-60.

Management of cancer pain. In VT DeVita Jr et al., eds., Cancer: Principles and Practices of Oncology, 6th ed., pp. 2977–3011. Philadelphia: Lippincott Williams and Wilkins.

Pergolizzi J, Boger R, Budd K, et al. Opioids and the management of chronic severe pain in the elderly: consensus statement of an international expert panel with focus on the six clinically most often used World Health Organisation step III opioids (Buprenorphine, fentanyl, hydromorphone, methadone, morphine, oxycodone. Pain Pract 2008;8(4):287-313.

Manchikanti L, Fellows B, Ailinani H, Pampati V. Therapeutic use, abuse, and nonmedical use of opioids: a ten-year perspective. Pain Physician 2010;13:401-35.