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Patients report unused opioids after joint, spine surgery
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Patients reported unused opioids, limited use of analgesic alternative and having little knowledge of safe opioid storage and disposal after they underwent joint and spine surgery, according to findings published in Anesthesia & Analgesia.
“It is clear that more judicious opioid prescribing is needed,” Mark C. Bicket, MD, told Healio.com/Orthopedics “This study shows that, besides focusing on fewer opioid pills, patients need to hear from prescribers about the importance of opioid-sparing medications. For example, taking two non-opioid medications, acetaminophen and ibuprofen, at the same time can reduce the need for opioids and improve pain, but we found only one in 20 patients appear to do just that.”
Bicket and colleagues performed a prospective cohort study of 140 patients who underwent elective same-day or inpatient joint and spine surgery. Investigators used patient surveys via telephone calls to assess patient-reported outcomes at 2-day, 2-week, 1-month and 6-month intervals. Outcomes included stopping opioid treatment and possession of unused opioid pills, the number of unused opioid tablets reported after stopping opioids, use of non-opioid pain treatments, and knowledge and practice of safe opioid storage and disposal.
There were 115 patients who achieved follow-up at 1 month and 110 patients achieved follow-up at 6 months. Results showed 73% of patients who stopped opioid therapy reported possession of unused opioids at 1 month and 34% at 6 months. Investigators noted at the 1-month follow-up, 46% of patients had 20 or more unused pills and 37% had 200 or more morphine milligram equivalents. There were 6% of patients who said they used multiple non-opioid adjuncts. After both 1 month and 6 months, many patients reported unsafe storage and failure to dispose of opioids. – by Monica Jaramillo
Disclosures : Bicket reports no relevant financial disclosures. Please see the full study for a list of all other authors’ relevant financial disclosures.
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