Assessment of tramadol in the management of pain

Tramadol is a cyclohexanol derivative with mu-agonist activity. This review aims to provide a risk-benefit assessment of tramadol in the management of acute and chronic pain syndromes.

Tramadol has been used intraoperatively as part of balanced anesthesia. Postoperatively, intravenous and intramuscular tramadol has been used with good efficacy. Analgesic doses were comparable with pethidine (meperidine) and 10 times higher than morphine. In controlled studies, haemodynamic and respiratory parameters were only minimally impaired. The risk of severe respiratory depression in typical dosages is negligible in comparison with other opioids used for postoperative pain management. Tramadol has been used with good results for the management of labour pain without respiratory depression of the neonate. It was also effective for the treatment of pain from myocardial ischaemia, ureteric colic and acute trauma. Good results have been published for cancer pain management with tramadol in several studies.

Tramadol can be recommended as a safe and efficient drug for step II according to the World Health Organization guidelines for cancer pain management.

There are so many sites devoting the attention to the promotion of this drug too.