Dexamethasone Coanalgesic Administration in Steroid Naïve and Steroid Non-Naïve Patients for the Prevention of Pain Flares after Palliative Radiotherapy for Bone Metastases.

Objective: Dexamethasone could be an effective prophylactic agent for the prevention of pain flares after palliative radiotherapy (RT) for uncomplicated bone metastases. To date, there are no data on its prophylactic coanalgesic (opioid-sparing) effect after RT in patients with complicated bone metastases compared to uncomplicated ones, which is the aim of our study.

Methods: Twenty-nine American Society of Anaesthesiologists (ASA) III-IV patients, aged ≥18, treated with single-fraction 8 Gy/1 or multi-fraction 20 Gy/5 RT for painful uncomplicated bone metastases (steroid naïve patients,  = 14) or complicated ones (steroid non-naïve patients,  = 15), were examined retrospectively.