Sufentanil, sold under the brand names Sufenta among others, is a syntheticopioidanalgesic drug approximately 5 to 10 times as potent as its parent drug, fentanyl, and 500 to 1,000 times as potent as morphine. Structurally, sufentanil differs from fentanyl through the addition of a methoxymethyl group on the piperidine ring (which increases potency but is believed to reduce duration of action[7]), and the replacement of the phenyl ring by thiophene. Sufentanil first was synthesized at Janssen Pharmaceutica in 1974.[8]
Medical uses
Sufentanil offers properties of sedation and can be used as analgesic component of anesthetic regimen during an operation.[9]
Because of its extremely high potency, it is often used in surgery and post-operative pain management for patients that are heavily opioid dependent/opioid tolerant because of long term opiate use for chronic pain or illicit opiate use. It is also used in surgery and post-operative pain control in people that are taking high dose buprenorphine for chronic pain because it has the potency and binding affinity strong enough to displace buprenorphine from the opioid receptors in the central nervous system and provide analgesia.[10]
In 2018, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved Dsuvia, a sublingual tablet form of the drug, that was developed in a collaboration between AcelRx Pharmaceuticals and the United States Department of Defense for use in battlefield settings where intravenous (IV) treatments may not be readily available.[11] The decision to approve this new potent synthetic opioid came under criticism from politicians and from the chair of the FDA advisory committee, who fear that the tablets will be easily diverted to the illegal drug market.[12]
Overdose
Management
Because sufentanil is very potent, practitioners must be prepared to reverse the effects of the drug should the patient exhibit symptoms of overdose such as respiratory depression or respiratory arrest. As for all other opioid-based medications, naloxone (trade name Narcan) is the definitive antidote for overdose. Depending on the amount administered, it can reverse the respiratory depression and, if enough is administered, completely reverse the effects of sufentanil.[3]
Society and culture
Brand names
Sufentanil is marketed under various brand names including Dsuvia,[13] Dzuveo, Sufenta, and Sufentil.
^Vucković S, Prostran M, Ivanović M, Dosen-Mićović Lj, Todorović Z, Nesić Z, et al. (2009). "Fentanyl analogs: structure-activity-relationship study". Curr Med Chem. 16 (9): 2468–2474. doi:10.2174/092986709788682074. PMID19601792.
^Niemegeers CJ, Schellekens KH, Van Bever WF, Janssen PA (1976). "Sufentanil, a very potent and extremely safe intravenous morphine-like compound in mice, rats and dogs". Arzneimittel-Forschung. 26 (8): 1551–6. PMID12772.
^Savoia G, Loreto M, Gravino E (September 2001). "Sufentanil: an overview of its use for acute pain management". Minerva Anestesiologica. 67 (9 Suppl 1): 206–216. PMID11778119.
