Efficacy and Safety of Transdermal Buprenorphine versus Oral Tramadol/Acetaminophen in Patients with Persistent Postoperative Pain after Spinal Surgery

Table 4

Medication compliance rate, dose change, and use of rescue medication.

Full analysis set	Buprenorphine transdermal system; ()	Oral tramadol/acetaminophen; ()	value
Medication compliance rate, %, mean ± SD
At Week 2	97.9 ± 10.1	92.5 ± 21.1	0.0078
At Week 6	97.8 ± 14.1	91.0 ± 18.9	<0.0001
Dose change of study medication
Patients requiring dose change during study, (%)	9 (15.8)	8 (15.7)	—
Week 6 dose of patients who had dose change	10 μg/h	2 tablets	—
Dose change, mean ± SD	0.79 ± 1.84 μg	0.16 ± 0.37 tablets	—
Total dose of rescue medication, mg, mean ± SD
Baseline to week 2 (2-week duration)	1,439.2 ± 1,741.3	1,412.2 ± 2,009.7	0.9429
Week 2 to week 6 (4-week duration)	1,534.7 ± 1,820.0	1,869.4 ± 2,530.0	0.4542

Medication compliance rate = total number of doses actually administered (actual number of medication days)/total number of doses prescribed (number of medication days prescribed); rank sum test; -test.