Pain management with intrathecal clonidine in a colon cancer patient with opioid hyperalgesia: case presentation.

Hyperalgesia is normally an increase in the response to a painful stimulant. Opioid-induced hyperalgesia (OIH) is a situation frequently encountered in algology clinics. Its treatment is complicated and problematic and often requires alternative methods. A 40-year-old male patient 45 kg weighing had been diagnosed with stage IV colon cancer 2.5 years ago. He had used non-steroid antiinflammatory drugs, opioid analgesics and steroid preparations casually for his increased pain without any monitoring for one year. He was admitted five times for pain control. In the last visit, he complained of severe abdominal, pubic and rectal pain (visual analogue scale [VAS] 8), which was unresponsive to epidural analgesic, and later presented to the algology clinic; he was sleep-deprived, restless and in a panic state. Intrathecal morphine (1 mg) was applied considering his opioid tolerance. Because of increased pain (VAS 8-9) one hour after surgery for abscess in the liver and peritonea, the patient was given intravenous dexketoprofen trometamol and diazem considering his OIH. Then, bolus dexmedetomidine (1 µg/kg) followed by dexmedetomidine infusion (0.2 µg/kg/h) was started. Three days later, diagnostic intrathecal clonidine (30 µg) was applied, and the patient's complaints regressed. With the patient reporting relaxed pain (VAS 1-2) after 30 minutes, an intrathecal port was placed. Both cancer pain and OIH were controlled with clonidine 90 µg/day. He was more relaxed, and his pain was tolerable until his death. Intrathecal clonidine administration may be an effective method for the treatment of OIH.