Sufentanil Citrate: A New Opioid Analgesic for Use in Anesthesia

Abstract

Sufentanil citrate is a potent analogue of fentanyl that has been evaluated primarily for use in opioid anesthesia. It is a pure mu receptor agonist and produces the typical spectrum of opioid effects. The major side effects are truncal rigidity and prolonged respiratory depression. In doses of 4-30 micrograms/kg sufentanil produces hypnosis and suppresses most hemodynamic and hormonal responses to surgery without producing significant cardiovascular depression. In this respect sufentanil and fentanyl have clear advantages over morphine, meperidine and potent inhalation anesthetics. Compared to fentanyl, sufentanil has a more rapid onset and shorter duration of action. The relatively high concentration of commercially available sufentanil injection will make it much more convenient for its intended application than fentanyl injection. This new agent will be used primarily for open-heart surgery and major operations in patients with severe cardiovascular compromise.

Assessment of small‐dose fentanyl and sufentanil blunting the cardiovascular responses to laryngoscopy and intubation in children

“…Our findings correspond with those of other studies in adults (16,17). The differences in attenuation of the cardiovascular intubation response between the two drugs may be due to a more potent analgesic effect (18), a more effective decrease in systemic vascular resistance (19) or better inhibition of hormonal response to noxious stimulus (20) with sufentanil.…”

Spinal sufentanil in rats: part I: epidural versus intrathecal sufentanil and morphine

“…Fentanyl (27)(28)(29)(30) and fentanyl-like compounds, including sufentanil (7, 31-35), when given epidurally, were observed to produce a fast onset of analgesia with a shorter duration of action than morphine but without late respiratory depression. Morphine and the fentanyl-like opioids clearly differ with regard to their lipophilicity (4, 6,7,9). Because the water-to-octanol partition coefficient of the opioids may play an important role in the clinical profile of these compounds and their optimal route of spinal administration, a detailed comparison of the hydrophilic opioid morphine and the lipophilic opioid sufentanil after both epidural and intrathecal administration was performed in rats.…”

Efficacy of ropivacaine compared with ropivacaine plus sufentanil for postoperative analgesia after major knee surgery

“…Sufentanil, a highly fat‐soluble opioid, can be used in the epidural space with safety. It is a strong agonist to opiate receptors [14, 15]. The dose used most often for epidural infusions is 1 µ g.ml −1 , at a rate of ≈ 10 ml.h −1 [16, 17].…”