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 One year after having major surgery, less than 1 percent of patients
over age 66 were still taking opioids, according to a report in JAMA
Surgery.
Recent research has suggested the number of people who remain on
opioids well after surgery was high, said study author Dr. Hance
Clarke, of Toronto Western Hospital.
In a previous study, Clarke and his colleagues found only 3 percent
of people who weren't taking opioids before surgery were still
taking them three months later. The new study followed patients for
a longer period.
Surgeons, Clarke said, want to know: If they put their patients on
opioids following surgery, "is it safe and what are the outcomes?"
The researchers used administrative healthcare data from 2003-2010
on 39,140 people age 66 and older who were not taking opioids
preoperatively.
Slightly more than half - 53 percent - received at least one opioid
prescription within 90 days after being released from the hospital.
One year later, only 168 of the 37,659 surviving patients (0.4
percent) were still using opioids.
Those who had part of their lungs removed were the most likely to
continue using opioids, which makes sense, said Clarke.
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"You’re opening someone’s thoracic cage and crushing nerves," he
said.
The researchers note that other studies too have found less than 1
percent of patients remain on opioids a year after their surgeries.
Still, they say, the large number of surgeries performed each year
means the number of people using opioids a year later is high.
Clarke said continued opioid use may be more likely among young
people, who may not have experienced severe pain in the past.
The researchers say interventions to prevent long-term postoperative
opioid use are best focused on those at the highest risk, and more
research is needed to help identify those groups.
SOURCE: http://bit.ly/2boTHFs JAMA Surgery, online August 9, 2016.
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