Comment on: Impact of preoperative opioid use on health outcomes after bariatric surgery

The opioid epidemic has had far reaching consequences for bariatric surgeons. We have had an awakening and have collectively realized our subspecialty has to do a better job at protecting our patients from this destructive addiction process. In a study of 9 hospital systems in the United States, 4.0% of patients who were not chronic opioid users before bariatric surgery converted to chronic use after surgery [1]. Another similar study indicated 77% of bariatric surgical patients who were on chronic pain medicines before surgery, not only remained on opioid therapy postsurgically, but collectively increased their overall opioid intake [2].
Source: Surgery for Obesity and Related Diseases - Category: Surgery Authors: Tags: Editorial Comment Source Type: research