MétaCan
Menu
Back to cohort
Record W4409760299 · doi:10.1136/rapm-2025-106483

Low-dose remifentanil as an adjunct analgesic is not associated with clinically important opioid-induced hyperalgesia: secondary analysis from a randomized controlled trial

2025· article· en· W4409760299 on OpenAlexafffund
Harsha Shanthanna, Maram Khaled, Álvaro Díaz, Parsa Farsinejad, Sarah Clements

Bibliographic record

VenueRegional Anesthesia & Pain Medicine · 2025
Typearticle
Languageen
FieldMedicine
TopicAnesthesia and Pain Management
Canadian institutionsPopulation Health Research InstituteMcMaster UniversityImpactMcMaster University Medical Centre
FundersCanadian Anesthesiologists' SocietyCanadian Anesthesia Research Foundation
KeywordsRemifentanilMedicineAnesthesiaHydromorphoneOpioidAnalgesicRandomized controlled trialMorphineHyperalgesiaSurgeryNociceptionInternal medicine

Abstract

fetched live from OpenAlex

BACKGROUND: Remifentanil, as the primary opioid or in high doses, is associated with opioid-induced hyperalgesia. We assessed outcomes of pain and opioid use with low-dose remifentanil as an adjunct analgesic after same-day surgeries. METHODS: This prospective cohort study was nested within a randomized controlled trial showing no difference in achieving satisfactory analgesia in the postanesthetic care unit with morphine or hydromorphone. Primary outcomes were pain scores in the postanesthetic care unit and 24 hours after surgery between patients who received remifentanil (R group) or those who received non-remifentanil opioid regimens (C group). We also evaluated pain scores in the day surgical unit, dose of long-acting opioids, and need for non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs. The association of remifentanil dose with outcomes was explored using linear regression. RESULTS: Patients in both groups (R=276, C=126) had comparable baseline characteristics. There were no differences in maximum postanesthetic care unit pain scores or average pain scores 24 hours after surgery: mean difference 0.3 (95% CI -0.9 to 0.2) and 0.4 (95% CI -1.7 to 0.9), respectively. In the R group, the dose of long-acting opioids in postanesthetic care unit was higher: mean difference 0.97 mg (95% CI 0.2 to 1.7) intravenous morphine equivalents, p=0.01. Adjusted analyses indicated that higher doses of remifentanil (25 mcg increments) were associated with higher maximum pain scores in day surgical unit: 0.23 units (95% CI 0.05 to 0.41), p=0.01; higher average pain scores 24 hours after surgery: 0.25 units (95% CI 0.036 to 0.46), p=0.02; and higher long-acting opioid doses in postanesthetic care unit: 0.14 mg intravenous morphine equivalents (95% CI 0.02 to 0.25), p=0.02. CONCLUSION: Opioid-induced hyperalgesia and increased opioid requirement after low-dose remifentanil use is unlikely to be clinically significant. TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER: NCT02223377.

Fetched live from OpenAlex and de-inverted. Abstracts are not stored in this database: the inverted indexes are 8.6 GB of the frame’s 9.3 GB of text, and the host has 13 GB free.

How this classification was reachedexpand

Full frame machine prediction

Teacher imitation

Not calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.

metaresearch head score (Codex)0.012
metaresearch head score (Gemma)0.022
Version: metacan-v3-hybrid-931329e0061cValidation status: machine_predicted_unvalidated
Candidate categoriesnone
Consensus categoriesnone
DomainCandidate signal: none · Consensus signal: none
Study designCandidate signal: Randomized trial · Consensus signal: Randomized trial
GenreCandidate signal: Empirical · Consensus signal: Empirical
Teacher disagreement score0.012
Threshold uncertainty score0.066

Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)

CategoryCodexGemma
Metaresearch0.0120.022
Meta-epidemiology (narrow)0.0020.001
Meta-epidemiology (broad)0.0060.013
Bibliometrics0.0010.001
Science and technology studies0.0010.001
Scholarly communication0.0030.001
Open science0.0010.001
Research integrity0.0020.002
Insufficient payload (model declined to judge)0.0110.001

Machine scores (provisional)

The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.

Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.

Opus teacher head0.018
GPT teacher head0.287
Teacher spread0.270 · how far apart the two teachers sit on this one work
Validation statusscore_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from it

Classification

machine, unvalidated

Machine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.

The models applied no category: nothing in the taxonomy fit this work.
Study designRandomized trial
Domainnot available
GenreEmpirical

How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".

Quick stats

Citations0
Published2025
Admission routes2
Has abstractyes

Explore more

Same venueRegional Anesthesia & Pain MedicineSame topicAnesthesia and Pain ManagementFrench-language works237,207