Metro South Palliative Care Service

Metro South Palliative Care Service (MSPCS)

Opioid Rotation/Conversion Learning Package
Published by the State of Queensland (Metro South Health), November 2019

This document is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Australia licence.
To view a copy of this licence, visit creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/au
© State of Queensland (Metro South Hospital and Health Service) 2019
This document was developed by Clive Eakin Palliative Care Staff Specialist in conjunction with Metro
South Palliative Care Service Education Steering Committee. Acknowledgement to Professor Liz
Reymond’s Guidelines for Converting Opioids.

You are free to copy, communicate and adapt the work, as long as you attribute the State of Queensland
(Metro South Palliative Care Service).
For more information, contact:
Metro South Palliative Care Service Education Steering Committee, Metro South Health, Brisbane South
Community, 2 Clara Street, Corinda Q 4075, phone 07 3710 2201.
Disclaimer:

The content presented in this publication is distributed by the Queensland Government as an information source only. The State of Queensland makes no statements,
representations or warranties about the accuracy, completeness or reliability of any information contained in this publication. The State of Queensland disclaims all
responsibility and all liability (including without limitation for liability in negligence) for all expenses, losses, damages and costs you might incur as a result of the
information being inaccurate or incomplete in any way, and for any reason reliance was placed on such information.

Metro South Palliative Care Service (MSPCS) V.6 7 July 2020 Page 1 of 18
Contents
Introduction............................................................................................................................................................ 3

Opioids Most Commonly Used by MSPCS that May Require Rotation ........................................................... 3

Opioids Less Commonly Used by MSPCS that May Require Rotation ........................................................... 3

Preparations of the Opioids Commonly Used by MSPCS ................................................................................ 4

MORPHINE ............................................................................................................................................................. 4
OXYCODONE ......................................................................................................................................................... 5
FENTANYL .............................................................................................................................................................. 6
BUPRENORPHINE ................................................................................................................................................. 6
HYDROMORPHONE .............................................................................................................................................. 7

MSH Prescribe Information .................................................................................................................................. 8

PalliMEDS App ....................................................................................................................................................... 9

Breakthrough PRN Dosage .................................................................................................................................. 9

MSCPC Opioid Conversion/Rotation Guideline ............................................................................................... 10

Table A .................................................................................................................................................................. 10
Table B .................................................................................................................................................................. 11

Case Study Examples of Opioid Conversion ................................................................................................... 12

Case Study One .................................................................................................................................................... 12
Case Study Two .................................................................................................................................................... 13

Assessment Quiz ................................................................................................................................................ 14

Additional Assessment Questions .................................................................................................................... 15

Opioid Rotation/Conversion Learning Package Solutions ............................................................................. 16

Assessment Quiz Solutions ................................................................................................................................... 16
Additional Assessment Question Solutions ........................................................................................................... 17

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Introduction
Opioids are commonly used to control severe pain in palliative patients with both malignant and non-
malignant terminal illnesses.

Opioids come in a variety of preparations including oral, transdermal and parenteral and vary widely in their
potency depending on their composition.

Opioids are Schedule 8 (Controlled Drug) medicines with strict legislative controls. Only appropriately
qualified Medical Practitioners or Nurse Practitioners can prescribe them

Opioid rotation/conversion may be required when:

a) Patient is allergic to a certain opioid
b) Patient has become intolerant to their current opioid
c) Patient’s pain remains poorly controlled despite titration of the current opioid dose
d) Patient is unable to continue to take the opioid in its current form, e.g. no longer able to swallow oral
medications requiring conversion to the parenteral route most commonly subcutaneous infusion via
a Syringe Driver (Niki Pump)

Opioid rotation may be of the same medicine to a different form (e.g. oral morphine to subcutaneous
Morphine), to a different opioid in the same form (e.g. oral Morphine to oral Hydromorphone) or to a
different opioid in a different form (e.g. Fentanyl patch to subcutaneous Hydromorphone).

Opioids Most Commonly Used by MSPCS that May Require Rotation

• Morphine
• Oxycodone
• Fentanyl
• Hydromorphone
• Buprenorphine

Opioids Less Commonly Used by MSPCS that May Require Rotation

• Codeine
• Tramadol
• Tapentadol
• Methadone (special case - complex conversion requiring a hospital admission)

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Preparations of the Opioids Commonly Used by MSPCS

MORPHINE

Preparation Route Pack Comment

Ordine Liquid Oral 2/5/10mg/mL Immediate Release (IR)

200mL BOTTLE For pain and also
useful for breathlessness

Sevredol Tablet Oral 10/20mg TABLET Immediate Release (IR) Tablet form if
unable to tolerate ordine taste

MS Contin Tablet Oral 5/10/15/30/60/100/200mg Modified Release (MR)

MS Contin MR Oral TABLET Given BD
Suspension
20/30/60/100/200mg
sachet SUSPENSION

Kapanol Capsule Oral 10/20/50/100mg Modified Release (MR)

CAPSULE Given once daily or BD

Morphine Injection S/C Morphine Sulphate Morphine Oral Dose

PRN 10/15/30mg/mL (1mL)
divided by 3 is the
or
AMPOULE
CSCI equivalent analgesic dose of S/C
Morphine

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 OXYCODONE

Preparation Route Pack Comment

Endone Oral 5mg TABLET Immediate Release (IR)

(Oxycodone IR Used PRN for Breakthrough Pain
tablets)

Oxynorm Capsule Oral 5/10/20mg CAPSULE Immediate Release (IR)

(Oxycodone IR Oral 1mg/ml 250mL BOTTLE Used PRN for Breakthrough Pain
capsule)
Oxynorm Liquid

Targin Tablet Oral 2.5/1.5mg, 5/2.5mg, Modified Release (MR)

10/5mg, 15/7.5mg,
(Oxycodone and “Said” to be less constipating than oxycontin
20/10mg, 30/15mg,
naloxone)
40/20mg 60/30mg Maximum recommended dose 80/40mg daily
80/40mg TABLET Contra-indicated in moderate to severe liver
failure

Oxycontin Tablet Oral 10/15/20/30/40/80mg Modified Release (MR)

TABLET Given BD

Oxycodone is approximately 1.5x more potent than Morphine

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 FENTANYL

Preparations Route Pack Comment

Durogesic Patch Skin 12/25/50/75/100mcg/hr Apply 1 patch every 72 hrs.

(Denpax, Fenpatch, PATCH
Dutran APO-fentanyl)

Fentanyl Solution for S/C or 50mcg/ml (2mL) AMPOULE Safer to use in kidney failure
Injection CSCI
50mcg/ml (10mL)

Sublingual Tablet Sublingual 100/200/300/400/600/800mcg PBS Authority ONLY

(Abstral) TABLET
Oral buccal For breakthrough pain in a
Fentanyl Lozenge Mucosa 200/400/600/800/1200/1600mcg palliative care patient with cancer.
(Actiq) LOZENGE
Where other short acting opioids
are clinically inappropriate or there
has been adverse effects when
using.
Fast acting but short duration
(<2hrs)

BUPRENORPHINE

Preparation Route Pack Comment

Norspan Patch Skin 5/10/15/20/25/30/40mcg/ Apply 1 patch every 7 days

hr PATCH
Opioid receptor partial agonist

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 HYDROMORPHONE

Preparation Route Pack Comment

Dilaudid (IR Oral 2/4/8mg TABLET Immediate Release

Hydromorphone)
Oral 1mg/mL Oral liquid 200mL 5 times stronger than Morphine
Tablet
BOTTLE

Dilaudid (IR
Hydromorphone) Oral
liquid

Jurnista (MR Oral 4/8/16/32/64mg TABLET Modified Release

Hydromorphone)
Given once daily ONLY
Tablet

Dilaudid S/C 2mg/mL AMPOULE 5 times stronger than Morphine

(Hydromorphone)
S/C 10mg/mL
Injection
Dilaudid HP
(Hydromorphone)
Injection

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MSH Prescribe Information

Please review MSH Prescribe via Qheps if you would like more information on the above medications.

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PalliMEDS App

PalliMEDS is a free app to support the clinical knowledge of health professionals who prescribe palliative
care medicines or care for people at their end of life.

This easy-to-search mobile reference tool pulls together prescribing information for medicines endorsed by
the Australian and New Zealand Society of Palliative Medicine and associated recommendations from
Australian Therapeutic Guidelines on palliative care.

Search by symptom or medicine, view dosing considerations, access useful resources and quickly see
which medicines are TGA approved and PBS listed.

Separate sections on medicine management at the end of life, use of off-label medicines, medico-legal
issues, and carer support are also included.

The palliMEDS app is a collaboration between NPS MedicineWise and the caring@home team. It is part of
an Australian Government funded project called caring@home.

The app is free to download from Google play or Apple App Store.

Breakthrough PRN Dosage

Opioid Breakthrough dose for acute pain exacerbation, should be approximately 10% of the total regular
opioid requirement over 24hrs. e.g. Targin 50/25mg bd equates to 100mg of Oxycodone over 24hrs,
therefore appropriate breakthrough PRN dose is 10mg of immediate release Oxycodone (2 Endone tablets)

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MSCPC Opioid Conversion/Rotation Guideline
A two-stage rotation/conversion of opioid guideline was developed by Professor Liz Reymond and has been
successfully utilised by MSPCS over the past decade.
The conversion guideline is available to all MSPCS staff on a convenient laminated lanyard card with Table
A on one side and Table B on the other side.

Table A

Table A

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Table B

Table B

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Case Study Examples of Opioid Conversion
Case Study One
AH is a 53-year-old woman with extensive metastatic Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer (NSCLC). She has
multiple metastases to bone, and liver, and two brain metastases. She has had palliative radiotherapy for
bone metastases pain a few months ago. She is linked to the community palliative care team.

She has been living at home, but in the past two weeks has become increasingly weak and anorexic. She
has had increasing pain and some episodes of brief confusion and short-term memory loss. She feels
nauseated (no vomiting) and is unable to eat very much and has been having increasing difficulty
swallowing her tablets.

Her current background opioid medications are a Fentanyl patch 75mcg/hr, changed every 72hrs, with
PRN Oxynorm 20mg capsule q2hrs for breakthrough pain. She has taken five Oxynorm capsules in the
past 24hrs. She is reviewed at home by the Nurse Practitioner and a decision is made to rotate to
Hydromorphone delivered subcutaneously via a syringe driver over 24hours and PRN Subcutaneous
injection for breakthrough pain. The Fentanyl patch is removed.

• Using TABLE A, convert the total opioid analgesic requirement in past 24 hours to oral Morphine
equivalent
Fentanyl - 75mcg/hr x 3.6 = 270mg oral Morphine
Oxycodone (Oxynorm capsules) breakthroughs total 5x 20mg = 100mg x1.5mg = 150mg oral
Morphine
Total oral Morphine equivalent in 24hrs = 270mg+150mg = 420mg

• Using TABLE B, convert the 24hour oral Morphine equivalent to subcutaneous Hydromorphone
Total oral Morphine = 420mg x 0.067 = 28mg
Therefore - 28mg of parenteral Hydromorphone is added to a syringe driver and delivered over
24 hours.
The appropriate breakthrough dose is 3mg Hydromorphone subcutaneous PRN q 2hrs
(approximately 10% of the regular 24hr opioid dose).

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Case Study Two
Mr KD is an 89-year-old man with Advanced End Stage Heart Failure and Chronic Obstructive Airways
Disease. He has no further cardiology or respiratory appointments and the approach is now entirely
supportive and he has been referred to the community palliative care service.

He takes sustained release (SR) oxycodone with naloxone (Targin) tablets 10/5mg bd for pain caused by
widespread osteoarthritis and osteoporotic vertebral fractures. He is eating well and has no problems with
swallowing tablets.
He has been experiencing increasing breathlessness and is using oral liquid Morphine (Ordine) 2mg/ml
taking 4mg q4hr PRN with good effect. He has taken four lots of Ordine in the past 24hours.

He is reviewed by the community palliative care Registrar and a decision is made to rotate him from Targin
tablet to SR oral Morphine tablet (MS Contin) with the aim of helping further alleviate both his pain and the
symptomatic breathlessness.

• Using TABLE A convert the total opioid analgesic requirement in past 24 hours to oral Morphine
equivalent
Targin 10/5mg bd = 20mg SR Oxycodone in 24 hrs. 20mg x 1.5 = 30mg oral Morphine
Ordine 4mg x 5 = 20mg oral Morphine
Total oral Morphine equivalent in 24hrs = 30+20mg = 50mg

• TABLE B not required as we already have the oral Morphine dose in 24hrs
Dividing by two the MS Contin dose is therefore 25mg BD
The breakthrough Ordine dose continues at 4mg q2hrs PRN

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Assessment Quiz
Calculate the follow using the MSPCS Conversion Chart. Once completed, review with your preceptor.

1. A patient is receiving SR Morphine (MS Contin) 90mg bd. Convert to parenteral Morphine to be
delivered subcutaneously by Syringe Driver over 24hrs.

2. A patient is receiving Targin 30/15mg bd with Endone 5mg tablet q2hr PRN for breakthrough pain.
She has required six Endone tablets for breakthrough pain in the past 24hrs. Despite this the pain
remains poorly controlled and the patient is having difficulty swallowing the tablets.
Convert to an appropriate dose of parenteral morphine delivered subcutaneously by Syringe Driver
over 24 hours. Also calculate an appropriate subcutaneous Morphine dose to be given PRN qh4hr.

3. A patient is on taking subcutaneous Hydromorphone 25mg over 24hrs via Syringe Driver (Niki
pump). Convert to an appropriate Fentanyl patch dosage. (Tip: select the patch strength closest to
your calculated dose.)

4. What is the appropriate breakthrough dose of IR Oxycodone (Endone or Oxynorm) for someone
taking Targin 40/20mg bd as their regular opioid analgesia?

5. A patient is taking Targin 60/30mg bd and they have required five Oxynorm 10mg capsules in the
past 24hrs. Pain remains poorly controlled. Patient is alert and swallowing well. Convert to oral SR
Hydromorphone (Jurnista) daily dose. Also, what would be an appropriate breakthrough dose of
oral IR Hydromorphone (Dilaudid) tablet to give Q2hr PRN.

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Additional Assessment Questions

1. A patient is receiving Targin 20/10mg bd and also Tapentadol SR 100mg bd. Pain is well controlled,
but the patient is experiencing significant nausea and some confusion.
Convert both of these medications to an equivalent Fentanyl Patch Dose.
(Tip, select the patch strength closest to your calculation)

2. A patient has been receiving 20mg of subcutaneous hydromorphone via a syringe driver over 24hrs.
Their pain has been stable and well controlled for a week.
Convert the patient from the subcutaneous hydromorphone to oral SR Hydromorphone (Jurnista)
(Tip, select the SR oral Hydromorphone (Jurnista) strength closest to your calculation)

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Opioid Rotation/Conversion Learning Package Solutions
Assessment Quiz Solutions

1. SR Morphine (MS Contin) 90 mg bd = 180mg oral Morphine equivalent over 24hrs.

No further conversion required from Table A of the guideline.
Taking Table B to convert to subcutaneous Morphine the factor is 0.33. Therefore, 180mg x 0.33 =
59.4mg. This is rounded up to 60mg subcutaneous Morphine given over 24 hours by Syringe
Driver.
2. Targin 30/15mg bd = 60mg oral oxycodone in 24hrs. Endone 5mg x 6 = 30mg of oral Oxycodone in
24hrs. Total oral Oxycodone requirement in 24hrs is 60+30mg = 90mg.
Using Table A of guideline to convert to oral Morphine equivalent factor is 1.5. Therefore 90 x 1.5 =
135mg of oral Morphine equivalent.
Using Table B of the guideline to convert to subcutaneous Morphine the factor is 0.33. Therefore,
135mg x 0.33 = 44.55mg.
This is rounded to 45mg subcutaneous Morphine given over 24 hours by Syringe Driver
An appropriate PRN breakthrough dose would be 1/10th this of 4.5mg Morphine, rounded up
to 5mg subcutaneous Morphine to be given PRN q4hr.
3. Hydromorphone 25mg subcutaneous via syringe driver over 24hrs.
Using Table A of guideline convert to oral morphine equivalent the factor is 15. 25mg x 15 = 375mg
oral morphine equivalent.
Using Table B of the guideline to convert to Fentanyl Patch mcg/hr topically the factor is 0.28
therefore 375mg x 0.28 = 105mcg/hr.
The appropriate Fentanyl patch strength is 100mcg/hr topically applied.
4. The conversion guideline tables are not required for this calculation, as the same opioid Oxycodone
is used for SR dose and breakthrough IR dose.
Targin 40/20mg bd is equivalent to 80mg oral Oxycodone over 24hrs.
The breakthrough dose is calculated at approximately 1/10 of this dose i.e. 80mg/10 = 8mg.
This is rounded to 10mg of IR Oxycodone PRN which could be given as two 5mg Endone
tablets or one 10mg Oxynorm capsule.
5. Targin 60/30mg bd is equivalent to 120mg oral Oxycodone over 24hrs. Oxynorm 5 x 10mg oral
capsules is equivalent to 50mg of oral oxycodone over 24hrs.
Total oral Oxycodone requirement is therefore 120mg + 50mg = 170mg.
Using Table A of the guideline converting this to oral Morphine equivalent the factor is 1.5.
Therefore, 170mg x 1.5 = 255mg o of oral Morphine equivalent.
Using Table B of the guideline to convert to oral Hydromorphone over 24hrs the factor is 0.2
255mg x 0.2 =51mg.
SR oral Hydromorphone (Jurnista) comes in strengths of 4mg, 8mg, 16mg, 32mg and 64 mg tablet
once daily. The oral dose is therefore rounded to 48mg SR Hydromorphone (Jurnista) - 32mg
+16mg tablet once daily. The breakthrough pain dose of IR oral Hydromorphone (Dilaudid) should
be approximately 1/10 of this dose i.e. 48/10 = 4.8mg.
Therefore, the 4mg IR Hydromorphone tablet (Dilaudid) should be used PRN.

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Additional Assessment Question Solutions
1. Targin 20/10mg bd is 40 mg of oxycodone over 24hrs
Using Table A to convert to oral morphine, the Conversion Factor is 1.5, therefore 1.5 X 40= 60mg
Tapentadol SR 100mg bd is 200mg of Tapentadol over 24hrs
Using Table A to convert to oral morphine, the Conversion Factor is 0.4, therefore 200 X 0.4=80mg
Therefore, total Oral Morphine Dose Equivalent (mg/24hrs) is 60mg+80mg = 140mg
Using Table B to convert to Fentanyl Patch the Conversion Factor is 0.28
140mg X 0.28 = 39.2mcg/hr
It would be most appropriate to use a 25mcg/hr and a 12mcg/hr Fentanyl patch together to
deliver 37mcg/hr Fentanyl as the available strength closest to your calculation.
2. Using Table A to convert subcutaneous Hydromorphone to oral Morphine the Conversion Factor is
15
Therefore 20 x 15 = 300mg/24hrs Oral Morphine
using Table B the Conversion Factor to Oral SR Hydromorphone is 0.2, therefore 300mg x 0.2 =
60mg
It would be most appropriate to use 64mg once daily SR oral Hydromorphone (Jurnista)

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