FDA Drug Safety Communication: Safety review update of codeine use in children; new Boxed Warning and Contraindication on use after tonsillectomy and/or adenoidectomy

This update is in follow-up to the FDA Drug Safety Communication: Codeine use in certain children after tonsillectomy and/or adenoidectomy may lead to rare, but life-threatening adverse events or death issued on 8/15/2012.

 View and print full DSC - DSC Update on Codeine 02-2013 [PDF -116KB] 

• Safety
  Announcement
  
   
• Drug
  Facts
  
   
• Additional Info
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• Additional Info
  for Healthcare
  Professionals
• Data
  Summary
• References
  
   

Safety Announcement

[2-20-2013] The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is updating the public about new actions being taken to address a known safety concern with codeine use in certain children after tonsillectomy and/or adenoidectomy (surgery to remove the tonsils and/or adenoids). Deaths have occurred post-operatively in children with obstructive sleep apnea who received codeine for pain relief following a tonsillectomy and/or adenoidectomy. Codeine is converted to morphine by the liver.  These children had evidence of being ultra-rapid metabolizers of codeine, which is an inherited (genetic) ability that causes the liver to convert codeine into life-threatening or fatal amounts of morphine in the body.

A new Boxed Warning, FDA’s strongest warning, will be added to the drug label  of codeine-containing products about the risk of codeine in post-operative pain management in children following tonsillectomy and/or adenoidectomy. A Contraindication, which is a formal means for FDA to make a strong recommendation against use of a drug in certain patients, will be added to restrict codeine from being used in this setting. The Warnings/Precautions, Pediatric Use, and Patient CounselingInformation sections of the drug label will also be updated.

In August 2012, FDA announced it was reviewing the safety of codeine due to cases of deaths and serious adverse events in children who took the drug after a tonsillectomy and/or adenoidectomy and had evidence of being ultra-rapid metabolizers of codeine. FDA conducted a comprehensive safety review to identify additional cases of overdose or death in children taking codeine and to determine if these adverse events occurred in any other treatment settings. Many of the cases of serious adverse events or death occurred in children with obstructive sleep apnea who received codeine after a tonsillectomy and/or adenoidectomy (see Data Summary). Since these children already had underlying breathing problems, they may have been particularly sensitive to the breathing difficulties that can result when codeine is converted in the body to high levels of morphine. However, this contraindication applies to all children undergoing tonsillectomy and/or adenoidectomy because it is not easy to determine which children might be ultra-rapid metabolizers of codeine.

Health care professionals should prescribe an alternate analgesic for post-operative pain control in children who are undergoing tonsillectomy and/or adenoidectomy. Codeine should not be used for pain in children following these procedures.

For management of other types of pain in children, codeine should only be used if the benefits are anticipated to outweigh the risks.

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