Unlabelled: In 2017, the Department of Health and Human Service declared a public health emergency known as the opioid crisis. In North Carolina, the "Strengthen Opioid Misuse Prevention Act of 2017" (STOP Act) went into effect on January 1, 2018, seeking to strengthen oversight over opioid prescriptions. Among other mandates, this legislation limited the duration of the initial prescription to 5 or 7 days. The purpose of this study was to compare narcotic prescription practices within the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery at an academic medical center before and after the enactment of the STOP Act. We hypothesized that there would be a statistically significant decrease in the amount of postoperative opioids prescribed after the STOP Act and that this decrease would be consistent across all types of providers in the Orthopaedic Surgery Department.
Methods: Opiate prescriptions data from all orthopaedic surgery providers at our academic institution were collected from January to the end of September in 2017 and from January to the end of September in 2018. After filtering the providers by our study's inclusion and exclusion criteria, we included data from 49 providers in our analysis. We used a paired -test to compare the prescription data between the two periods.
Results: There was a 35% decrease in morphine milligram equivalents prescribed at our institution between 2017 and 2018 ( = 0.0003). This reduction was statistically significant and equaled 27,374 less morphine milligram equivalents prescribed per provider (95% confidence interval 13,226 to 41,523). The average number of opiate prescriptions per provider decreased from 171.5 in 2017 to 161 in 2018 ( = 0.48), although this was not statistically significant.
Conclusion: The STOP Act effectively decreased the amount of opiates prescribed within our Orthopaedic Surgery Department. Similar legislation may be effective in other states and at the federal level to decrease narcotic prescriptions and subsequent abuse.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.5435/JAAOSGlobal-D-20-00006 | DOI Listing |
Arch Orthop Trauma Surg
January 2025
Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Anam Hospital, Korea University College of Medicine, Seoul, South Korea.
Introduction: There is a lack of clinical evidence supporting the decision-making process between high tibial osteotomy (HTO) and unicomparmental knee arthroplasty (UKA) in gray zone indication, such as moderate medial osteoarthritis with moderate varus alignment. This study compared the outcomes between HTO and UKA in such cases and assessed the risk factor for not maintaining clinical improvements.
Materials And Methods: We retrospectively reviewed 65 opening-wedge HTOs and 55 UKAs with moderate medial osteoarthritis (Kellgren-Lawrence grade ≥ 3 and Ahlback grade < 3) and moderate varus alignment (5°< Hip-Knee-Ankle angle < 10°) over 3 years follow-up.
Eur J Orthop Surg Traumatol
January 2025
Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, University of California San Diego, 200 West Arbor Drive MC 8894, San Diego, CA, 92103, USA.
Purpose: While treatment modalities for Maisonneuve fractures involving the proximal third of the fibula are established, no studies to date have reported outcomes associated with syndesmotic-only fixation of middle third fibular shaft fractures. The purpose of this study was to evaluate outcomes associated with syndesmotic-only fixation in the treatment of Maisonneuve fractures involving the middle third of the fibula.
Methods: A retrospective review was conducted on 257 cases of syndesmotic ankle instability with associated fibular fractures at a level 1 trauma center between 2013 and 2023.
Arch Orthop Trauma Surg
January 2025
Department of Orthopedic Surgery, Columbia University Orthopedics at Mount Sinai Medical Center, 4302 Alton Road, Suite 220, Miami Beach, FL, 33140, USA.
Background: In the case of end-stage hallux rigidus, first metatarsophalangeal (MTP) joint arthrodesis is the gold-standard and is traditionally performed via an open approach. However, complications such as nonunion have been reported to be as high as 30%. Recently, there have been reports demonstrating a percutaneous approach to be effective and safe.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFArch Orthop Trauma Surg
January 2025
Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Washington University in St. Louis School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO, USA.
Introduction: Ankle fractures represent a significant portion of orthopedic injuries, with fracture dislocations tending to have worse outcomes. Logsplitter fractures represent a subset of fracture dislocations in which the talus is axially wedged in the tibiofibular joint. We aim to comprehensively investigate and report on the complications and functional outcomes associated with ankle fracture-dislocations.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFForensic Sci Med Pathol
January 2025
Department of Medical and Surgical Sciences, Unit of Legal Medicine, University of Bologna, Via Irnerio 49, 40126, Bologna, Italy.
The diagnosis of septic arthritis remains challenging in the clinical setting, often leading to a suspicion for medical liability. Our purpose is to describe an unusual case of a post-mortem diagnosis of P. multocida fatal septic arthritis, in a healthy 67-year-old woman presenting with pain in the right shoulder.
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