Persistent Postoperative Opioid Use A Systematic Literature Search of Definitions and Population-based Cohort Study

Conclusions The incidence of persistent opioid use reported after surgery varies more than 100-fold depending on the definition used. Definitions varied markedly in their sensitivity for identifying adverse opioid-related event, with low sensitivity overall across measures.Editor ’s PerspectiveWhat We Already Know about This TopicPersistent opioid use after surgery is a matter of great concernDefining appropriate opioid prescribing practices and policies depends critically on understanding the rate of and reasons for persistent postoperative opioid useWhat This Article Tells Us That Is NewA systematic search of the literature revealed 29 distinct definitions of persistent opioid use employed in 39 different studiesApplying the definitions to a separate study cohort of more than 162,000 surgical patients identified persistent opioid use rates varying more than 100-fold with low sensitivity for the identification of opioid use disorder

Source: Anesthesiology - May 13, 2020 Category: Anesthesiology Source Type: research