Fifth of Opioid-Naïve Patients Continue Use Post-surgery
More than a fifth of ‘opioid-naïve’ patients continue to use opioids three months after having a procedure, underscoring the often-overlooked role surgery plays in the opioid epidemic.
In research presented at the ANESTHESIOLOGY® 2021 annual meeting, smokers and people with bipolar disorder, depression or pulmonary hypertension were found to be at highest risk.
Persistent opioid use was much higher than expected among opioid-naïve patients (those who did not have an opioid prescription filled in the previous year). Surgery is the first time many patients have used opioids, often prescribed for post-surgical pain management.
The study examined data on 13 970 opioid-naïve adults from 2013-2019. In the study, opioid-naïve patients were those who had not filled an opioid prescription 31 days to one year before surgery (patients often are prescribed opioids in advance so they are available immediately after the surgery). Researchers found that 21.2% of patients refilled their opioid prescription three months to one year after the procedure. Unless they have cancer or had chronic pain before surgery, very few patients should still need opioids three months after surgery, the researchers note.
Analysing 46 potential risk factors, researchers found many patients were still using opioids after three months. The top four risk-factors identified, which were modifiable, were: smoking, bipolar disorder, depression and pulmonary hypertension. They also found that procedures with cardiac and podiatry surgical providers and patients who had cataract surgery were at an increased risk of persistent opioid use.
“To reduce the likelihood of ongoing opioid use, physician anesthesiologists should use the preoperative assessment to identify patients at highest risk for persistent use,” said lead author Gia Pittet, AuD, PhD, visiting graduate researcher for anesthesiology and perioperative medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles. “Before they have surgery, patients who smoke should be encouraged to quit, those with pulmonary hypertension should see a doctor to help them get the condition under control and patients with bipolar disorder or depression may require a preoperative adjustment of their medications.”
Patients should also receive counseling about the safe use of opioids and be offered alternative pain management, such as limited or non-opioid multimodal treatment and be monitored frequently and closely while they are taking opioids.