General
Opioid analgesics should be used with caution when combined with CNS depressant drugs, and should be reserved for cases where the benefits of opioid analgesia outweigh the known risks of respiratory depression, altered mental state, and postural hypotension.
Acute Abdominal Conditions
The administration of oxycodone and acetaminophen tablets or other opioids may obscure the diagnosis or clinical course in patients with acute abdominal conditions. Oxycodone and acetaminophen tablets should be given with caution to patients with CNS depression, elderly or debilitated patients, patients with severe impairment of hepatic, pulmonary, or renal function, hypothyroidism, Addison’s disease, prostatic hypertrophy, urethral stricture, acute alcoholism, delirium tremens, kyphoscoliosis with respiratory depression, myxedema, and toxic psychosis.
Oxycodone and acetaminophen tablets may obscure the diagnosis or clinical course in patients with acute abdominal conditions. Oxycodone may aggravate convulsions in patients with convulsive disorders, and all opioids may induce or aggravate seizures in some clinical settings.
Following administration of oxycodone and acetaminophen tablets, anaphylactic reactions have been reported in patients with a known hypersensitivity to codeine, a compound with a structure similar to morphine and oxycodone. The frequency of this possible cross-sensitivity is unknown.
Interactions with Other CNS Depressants
Patients receiving other opioid analgesics, general anesthetics, phenothiazines, other tranquilizers, centrally-acting anti-emetics, sedative-hypnotics or other CNS depressants (including alcohol) concomitantly with oxycodone and acetaminophen tablets may exhibit an additive CNS depression. When such combined therapy is contemplated, the dose of one or both agents should be reduced.
Interactions with Mixed Agonist/Antagonist Opioid Analgesics
Agonist/antagonist analgesics (i.e., pentazocine, nalbuphine, and butorphanol) should be administered with caution to a patient who has received or is receiving a course of therapy with a
pure opioid agonist analgesic such as oxycodone. In this situation, mixed agonist/antagonist analgesics may reduce the analgesic effect of oxycodone and/or may precipitate withdrawal
symptoms in these patients.
Ambulatory Surgery and Postoperative Use
Oxycodone and other morphine-like opioids have been shown to decrease bowel motility. Ileus is a common postoperative complication, especially after intra-abdominal surgery with use of opioid analgesia. Caution should be taken to monitor for decreased bowel motility in postoperative patients receiving opioids. Standard supportive therapy should be implemented.
Use in Pancreatic/Biliary Tract Disease
Oxycodone may cause spasm of the Sphincter of Oddi and should be used with caution in patients with biliary tract disease, including acute pancreatitis. Opioids like oxycodone may cause increases in the serum amylase level.
Tolerance and Physical Dependence
Tolerance is the need for increasing doses of opioids to maintain a defined effect such as analgesia (in the absence of disease progression or other external factors). Physical dependence is manifested by withdrawal symptoms after abrupt discontinuation of a drug or upon administration of an antagonist. Physical dependence and tolerance are not unusual during chronic opioid therapy.
The opioid abstinence or withdrawal syndrome is characterized by some or all of the following: restlessness, lacrimation, rhinorrhea, yawning, perspiration, chills, myalgia, and mydriasis. Other symptoms also may develop, including: irritability, anxiety, backache, joint pain, weakness, abdominal cramps, insomnia, nausea, anorexia, vomiting, diarrhea, or increased blood pressure, respiratory rate, or heart rate.
In general, opioids should not be abruptly discontinued (see DOSAGE AND ADMINISTRATION: Cessation of Therapy).
Information for Patients/Caregivers
The following information should be provided to patients receiving oxycodone and acetaminophen tablets by their physician, nurse, pharmacist, or caregiver:
1. Patients should be aware that oxycodone and acetaminophen tablets contain oxycodone, which is a morphine-like substance.
2. Patients should be instructed to keep oxycodone and acetaminophen tablets in a secure place out of the reach of children. In the case of accidental ingestions, emergency medical care should be sought immediately.
3. When oxycodone and acetaminophen tablets are no longer needed, the unused tablets should be destroyed by flushing down the toilet.
4. Patients should be advised not to adjust the medication dose themselves. Instead, they must consult with their prescribing physician.
5. Patients should be advised that oxycodone and acetaminophen tablets may impair mental and/or physical ability required for the performance of potentially hazardous tasks (e.g., driving, operating heavy machinery).
6. Patients should not combine oxycodone and acetaminophen tablets with alcohol, opioid analgesics, tranquilizers, sedatives, or other CNS depressants unless under the recommendation and guidance of a physician. When co-administered with another CNS depressant, oxycodone and acetaminophen tablets can cause dangerous additive central nervous system or respiratory depression, which can result in serious injury or death.
7. The safe use of oxycodone and acetaminophen tablets during pregnancy has not been established; thus, women who are planning to become pregnant or are pregnant should consult with their physician before taking oxycodone and acetaminophen tablets.
8. Nursing mothers should consult with their physicians about whether to discontinue nursing or discontinue oxycodone and acetaminophen tablets because of the potential for serious adverse reactions to nursing infants.
9. Patients who are treated with oxycodone and acetaminophen tablets for more than a few weeks should be advised not to abruptly discontinue the medication. Patients should consult with their physician for a gradual discontinuation dose schedule to taper off the medication.
10. Patients should be advised that oxycodone and acetaminophen tablets are a potential drug of abuse. They should protect it from theft, and it should never be given to anyone other than the individual for whom it was prescribed.
Laboratory Tests
Although oxycodone may cross-react with some drug urine tests, no available studies were found which determined the duration of detectability of oxycodone in urine drug screens. However, based on pharmaco*kinetic data, the approximate duration of detectability for a single dose of oxycodone is roughly estimated to be one to two days following drug exposure.
Urine testing for opiates may be performed to determine illicit drug use and for medical reasons such as evaluation of patients with altered states of consciousness or monitoring efficacy of drug rehabilitation efforts. The preliminary identification of opiates in urine involves the use of an immunoassay screening and thin-layer chromatography (TLC). Gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS) may be utilized as a third-stage identification step in the medical investigational sequence for opiate testing after immunoassay and TLC. The identities of 6-keto opiates (e.g., oxycodone) can further be differentiated by the analysis of their methoximetrimethylsilyl (MO-TMS) derivative.
Drug/Drug Interactions with Oxycodone
Opioid analgesics may enhance the neuromuscular-blocking action of skeletal muscle relaxants and produce an increase in the degree of respiratory depression.
Patients receiving CNS depressants such as other opioid analgesics, general anesthetics, phenothiazines, other tranquilizers, centrally-acting anti-emetics, sedative-hypnotics or other CNS depressants (including alcohol) concomitantly with oxycodone and acetaminophen tablets may exhibit an additive CNS depression. When such combined therapy is contemplated, the dose of one or both agents should be reduced. The concurrent use of anticholinergics with opioids may produce paralytic ileus.
Agonist/antagonist analgesics (i.e., pentazocine, nalbuphine, naltrexone, and butorphanol) should be administered with caution to a patient who has received or is receiving a pure opioid agonist such as oxycodone. These agonist/antagonist analgesics may reduce the analgesic effect of oxycodone or may precipitate withdrawal symptoms.
Drug/Drug Interactions with Acetaminophen
Alcohol, ethyl: Hepatotoxicity has occurred in chronic alcoholics following various dose levels (moderate to excessive) of acetaminophen.
Anticholinergics: The onset of acetaminophen effect may be delayed or decreased slightly, but the ultimate pharmacological effect is not significantly affected by anticholinergics.
Oral Contraceptives: Increase in glucuronidation resulting in increased plasma clearance and a decreased half-life of acetaminophen.
Charcoal (activated): Reduces acetaminophen absorption when administered as soon as possible after overdose.
Beta Blockers (Propanolol): Propranolol appears to inhibit the enzyme systems responsible for the glucuronidation and oxidation of acetaminophen. Therefore, the pharmacologic effects of acetaminophen may be increased.
Loop diuretics: The effects of the loop diuretic may be decreased because acetaminophen may decrease renal prostaglandin excretion and decrease plasma renin activity.
Lamotrigine: Serum lamotrigine concentrations may be reduced, producing a decrease in therapeutic effects.
Probenecid: Probenecid may increase the therapeutic effectiveness of acetaminophen slightly.
Zidovudine: The pharmacologic effects of zidovudine may be decreased because of enhanced nonhepatic or renal clearance of zidovudine.
Drug/Laboratory Test Interactions
Depending on the sensitivity/specificity and the test methodology, the individual components of oxycodone and acetaminophen tablets may cross-react with assays used in the preliminary detection of cocaine (primary urinary metabolite, benzoylecgonine) or marijuana (cannabinoids) in human urine. A more specific alternate chemical method must be used in order to obtain a confirmed analytical result. The preferred confirmatory method is gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS). Moreover, clinical considerations and professional judgment should be applied to any drug-of-abuse test result, particularly when preliminary positive results are used.
Acetaminophen may interfere with home blood glucose measurement systems; decreases of > 20% in mean glucose values may be noted. This effect appears to be drug, concentration and system dependent.
Carcinogenesis, Mutagenesis, Impairment of Fertility
Carcinogenesis: Animal studies to evaluate the carcinogenic potential of oxycodone and acetaminophen have not been performed.
Mutagenesis: The combination of oxycodone and acetaminophen has not been evaluated for mutagenicity. Oxycodone alone was negative in a bacterial reverse mutation assay (Ames), an in vitro chromosome aberration assay with human lymphocytes without metabolic activation and an in vivo mouse micronucleus assay. Oxycodone was clastogenic in the human lymphocyte chromosomal assay in the presence of metabolic activation and in the mouse lymphoma assay with or without metabolic activation.
Fertility: Animal studies to evaluate the effects of oxycodone on fertility have not been performed.
Pregnancy
Teratogenic Effects
Pregnancy Category C: Animal reproductive studies have not been conducted with oxycodone and acetaminophen. It is also not known whether oxycodone and acetaminophen can cause fetal harm when administered to a pregnant woman or can affect reproductive capacity. Oxycodone and acetaminophen should not be given to a pregnant woman unless in the judgment of the physician, the potential benefits outweigh the possible hazards.
Nonteratogenic Effects: Opioids can cross the placental barrier and have the potential to cause neonatal respiratory depression. Opioid use during pregnancy may result in a physically drug-dependent fetus. After birth, the neonate may suffer severe withdrawal symptoms.
Labor and Delivery
Oxycodone and acetaminophen tablets are not recommended for use in women during and immediately prior to labor and delivery due to its potential effects on respiratory function in the newborn.
Nursing Mothers
Ordinarily, nursing should not be undertaken while a patient is receiving oxycodone and acetaminophen tablets because of the possibility of sedation and/or respiratory depression in the infant. Oxycodone is excreted in breast milk in low concentrations, and there have been rare reports of somnolence and lethargy in babies of nursing mothers taking an oxycodone/acetaminophen product. Acetaminophen is also excreted in breast milk in low concentrations.
Pediatric Use
Safety and effectiveness in pediatric patients have not been established.
Geriatric Use
Special precaution should be given when determining the dosing amount and frequency of oxycodone and acetaminophen tablets for geriatric patients, since clearance of oxycodone may be slightly reduced in this patient population when compared to younger patients.
Hepatic Impairment
In a pharmaco*kinetic study of oxycodone in patients with end-stage liver disease, oxycodone plasma clearance decreased and the elimination half-life increased. Care should be exercised when oxycodone is used in patients with hepatic impairment.
Renal Impairment
In a study of patients with end stage renal impairment, mean elimination half-life was prolonged in uremic patients due to increased volume of distribution and reduced clearance. Oxycodone should be used with caution in patients with renal impairment.
