I have a form of muscular dystrophy that is very painful. I'm 34 and have been on the patches since I was 22.
At first the brand name was a gel patch but if you get brand now it's the same as a sandoz and has the same amount of fentanyl in them so I use the sandoz. I've tried every drug companies fentanyl patches over the years. Watson is a gel patch and quite big. As far as I know they are the only ones that are made with the gel reservoir . The Mallinckrodt in my opinion are the worst.. They are much smaller but are not as flexible as the other kinds. I do my best to stay away from these ... The Milan are smaller than (Watson, sandoz, and brand but about the same size as Mallinckrodt but Milan are more flexible. If anyone is having trouble getting there patches to stick first use the clear medical tape and tape around the edges. This works quite well for me. If that doesn't work try tagaderm. What I had to do is go on an every 48hour change instead of 72. That also helped a lot. And in my opinion sandoz or Milan are the ones to go with. The gel reservoir was a bad design. That's why brand switched to making them flat just like sandoz and Milan.
Stay away from Mallinckrodt and apotex. These are the cheapest patches and there's a reason why. I've been on this medication so long there have been times where I've had to settle with the other makers and it made the month hell. And a side note the people that abuse painkillers and eat or smoke these patches your really making it tough for the rest of us that have real medical problems that require us to take opiates or we can't function. I was bed ridden with pain before I got on opiates and now am able to live a somewhat normal life.
I started on Vicodin then tried OxyContin but it made me sick so was put on 50mcg of the patch. Now after so long and becoming more and more tolerant I'm on 275mcg every 48hours and 30mg of oxycodone as breakthrough. I wonder and am scared of what to do once my tolerance builds up again. So let me give some advice.. Use as little as possible to help your pain for as long as possible.
I hope this helps and good luck.