This article is more than 5 years old. Information may no longer be current.
Similar opioid use seen after surgical treatment of ankle fractures vs closed care of fibula fractures
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts
BOSTON — Similar rates of new, persistent opioid use were seen between patients who underwent surgical fixation of ankle fractures and patients who underwent closed treatment of a fibula fracture, according to a presenter at the American Orthopaedic Foot & Ankle Society Annual Meeting.
“There are roughly 400,000 ankle fractures per year. With the rates of new, persistent opioid use in our study, this corresponds to about 30,000 new, persistent users every year in United States,” Timothy Gossett, MD, said during his presentation.
Gossett and colleagues used an insurance claims database to identify 13,000 patients who underwent surgery for common ankle fracture patterns from January 2008 to December 2016. Patients were defined as opioid naïve because they did not have an opioid prescription filled in the period of 12 months to 15 days before treatment. A comparative group was made up of opioid naïve patients who underwent closed treatment of distal fibula fractures. Investigators assessed the peri-treatment and post-treatment opioid prescription fulfilment. New persistent use was the primary outcome. This was defined as opioid prescription fulfillment from 91 to 180 days after surgery. The effect surgery type, age, gender, median household income, mental health and pain disorders on the risk of new persistent use were evaluated with logistic regression.
Overall, there was no significant difference in new, persistent opioid use rates after surgical treatment of ankle fractures when compared with conservative fibular fracture treatment, with rates 8.4% vs. 7.4%, respectively. Investigators noted the groups showed high rates of new persistent use. Greater persistent opioid use rates were seen with treatment of bimalleolar ankle fractures and treatment of trimalleolar ankle fractures with fixation of the posterior lip. – by Monica Jaramillo
Reference:
Gossett T, et al. New, persistent opioid use following operative treatment of ankle fractures compared to nonoperatively treated fractures. Presented at: American Orthopaedic Foot & Ankle Society Annual Meeting; July 11-14, 2018; Boston.
Disclosure: Gossett reports no relevant financial disclosures.