[Opioid rotation in the home medical care service].

Pain relief is a quite important subject for maintaining the home medical care of patients with terminal cancer. Therefore, the opioid rotation should be made in conjunction with an individual medical condition, which is of growing importance in a proper pain management. We considered what opioid rotation is desirable in the home medical care service by analyzing the cases at our clinic. The most important thing in the opioid rotation at home is to perform a rotation before exacerbation of pain becomes apparent. For this purpose, morphine hydrochloride injection is thought to be the best dosage form because it has advantages of: (1) quickness in varying the amount, (2) immediate rescue efficacy, and (3) usefulness in case of ingestion.