Objective: A lack of guidance for pain control after otolaryngology surgery can lead to overprescription of opioids. We implemented a postoperative site-specific opioid prescription protocol and analyzed the impact on opioid prescriptions.
Methods: This is a retrospective cohort study. A postoperative opioid prescription protocol was implemented within our otolaryngology department at a tertiary academic medical center on January 1, 2020. Retrospective chart review was completed for all patients undergoing otolaryngology surgery from November 1, 2019, to February 29, 2020 (2 months before and after initiation of intervention; n = 1070). The primary outcome was change in the amount of opioid prescribed for the preintervention and postintervention cohorts. Unplanned contact related to pain and opioid refills were tracked to assess pain control.
Results: A total of 940 cases were included; adult and pediatric data were analyzed separately. There were 489 pediatric cases, 250 preintervention and 239 postintervention. There was a significant decrease in the amount of opioid prescribed per pediatric patient in the postintervention cohort (2.7 versus 0.32 morphine milligram equivalents, P = 0.02), and 99% of patients were not prescribed opioids at all. There was no significant change in unplanned contact, and no refills were required. There were 451 adult cases, 200 preintervention and 251 postintervention. There was no statistically significant decrease in the amount of opioid prescribed per adult patient (56.8 versus 51.7 morphine milligram equivalents, P = 0.23). There was no significant increase in unplanned contact or refills.
Conclusions: A postoperative opioid prescribing protocol can reduce the amount of opioid prescribed without increasing unplanned contact or opioid refills.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1097/PTS.0000000000000970 | DOI Listing |
Radiol Oncol
January 2025
1Clinical Department of Anaesthesiology and Intensive Care Medicine, University Medical Centre Ljubljana, Ljubljana, Slovenia.
Background: Chronic postoperative pain is the most common postoperative complication that impairs quality of life. Postoperative pain gradually develops into neuropathic pain. Multimodal analgesia targets multiple points in the pain pathway and influences the mechanisms of pain chronification.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Anal Toxicol
January 2025
Psychemedics Corporation, United States of America.
Opioids are widely prescribed pain medications that have the potential for misuse and abuse. As part of a routine procedure, our laboratory frequently encounters questions from clients/Medical Review Officers (MROs) regarding opioid hair concentrations in relation to the amount of opioid taken as part of a prescription. In this manuscript, we have analyzed a large number of real-world examples of opioid hair concentrations following self-reported consumption of an opioid prescription regimen.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFHosp Pharm
December 2024
Prisma Health Department of Orthopaedics, Columbia, SC, USA.
Opioids are often part of the post-operative pain regimen after orthopaedic surgery. Novel multimodal post-operative pain control regimens have been developed to decrease the amount of opioid usage due to their negative side effects including nausea, constipation, and addiction. The purpose of this study was to compare the cost of postoperative pain management treatment methods after orthopaedic surgery between opioid/acetaminophen therapy and an opioid-free, multidrug, multimodal pathway.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCureus
November 2024
Family Medicine, Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center, Alexandria, USA.
The use of interventional pain medicine (IPM) has been growing over the past few years, offering relief to patients suffering from acute and chronic pain who have failed conservative therapies. Pain is one of the top complaints that family physicians encounter, yet there is no official pain medicine (PM) fellowship or recognized training program that favors family medicine graduates. Although family medicine residency programs allot a certain amount of time to teaching trainees in PM, this is considerably insufficient and does not dedicate ample time for procedural treatments.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCureus
November 2024
Dermatology, Drexel University College of Medicine, Philadelphia, USA.
Introduction The opioid epidemic is a critical public health crisis, with opioid overdose deaths being a leading cause of injury-related deaths in the United States. Dermatology, though a small contributor to overall opioid prescriptions, still accounts for over 700,000 opioid pills annually. Reducing opioid prescribing in this specialty has been challenging due to limited comprehensive research.
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