This article is more than 5 years old. Information may no longer be current.
Shorter LOS, decreased hospital costs seen with IV acetaminophen, opioids vs opioids alone
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts
Results from a study published in Advances in Therapy demonstrated post-orthopedics surgery pain treated with opioids and intravenous acetaminophen compared with just opioids alone was correlated with a shorter hospital length of stay and decrease in hospital costs.
Researchers identified 485,895 orthopedic surgery patients from the Premier Database and compared 174,805 patients who had received IV acetaminophen and opioids with 311,090 patients who only received IV opioids. Investigators performed a two-stage regression analysis for hospital length of stay (LOS), total hospitalization cost and the opioid dosage.
The average age of the patients was 64 years, and the majority were non-Hispanic white and female. The mean unadjusted LOS for patients who received IV acetaminophen was 3.2 days vs. 3.9 days in the IV opioid-only group. Investigators noted the average unadjusted costs for IV acetaminophen patients was $19,024.90 and $19,927.60 for IV opioid-only patients.
The instrumental variable regressions showed statistically significant differences between the two groups. Patients in the IV acetaminophen group had a hospital LOS 0.51 days less than the IV opioid-only group. Further, the cost in the acetaminophen groups was $634.80 less and those patients used 1.9 mg less in opioids. ‒ by Monica Jaramillo
Disclosures: Hansen reports he received grant funding from Mallinckrodt Pharmaceuticals and also received research support from the Patient Centered Outcomes Research Institute and Pacira Pharmaceuticals. Please see the full study for a list of all other researchers’ relevant financial disclosures.
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts