Pharmacogenomics of Methadone in Spine Fusion Surgery

The overall objective is to develop a patient oriented research program to efficiently evaluate the effects of pharmacogenetic variants on the dose-response relationships and safety of opioids and non-opioid analgesics. If an opioid regimen can be created that produces excellent opioid analgesia with minimal toxicity related to supratherapeutic opioid concentrations (i.e., ventilatory depression), other non-opioid analgesics (i.e., gabapentin/pregabalin, ketamine, lidocaine, cyclooxygenase inhibitors, etc.) that may decrease preoperative opioid requirements can be more efficiently and safely evaluated. These interventions may limit the opioid related toxicities related to effect site concentrations that are below those required when opioids are the predominant analgesic, such as opioid related ileus. Methadone's slow elimination clearance and limited pharmacokinetic drug-drug interactions make it an attractive perioperative opioid. The first step towards personalized opioid analgesia is to determine the effect of common pharmacogenetic variants that affect either methadone metabolism (CYP2B6) or opioid elimination.