What are the advantages of set-dose extended-duration opioid management?

What are the advantages of set-dose extended-duration opioid management?

Set-dose extended-release opioids maintain analgesic blood concentrations within the therapeutic window more consistently over time. The therapeutic window is the range of blood levels at which the desired clinical effect— in this case analgesia—is achieved. With blood levels above the therapeutic window, the patient begins to experience side-effects. Drug blood levels below the therapeutic win-dow would be ineffective and result in the patient experi-encing pain. In contrast, “prn” dosing of medications maintain analgesic blood concentrations within the thera-peutic window for approximately one-third of the time. Therefore, set-dose extended-release medications provide better analgesia with less overall side-effects.