Changes in opioid distribution and chronic opioid users following outpatient orthopedic surgery: a pre-post intervention study.

BACKGROUND

Outpatient overprescribing of opioids in the postoperative period contributes to the opioid epidemic. Given that patient education and evidence-informed prescription protocols have reduced postoperative opioid use in small, randomized trials, we sought to evaluate the effectiveness of a multimodal opioid reduction protocol, implemented institution-wide at an outpatient Canadian orthopedic surgery centre.

METHODS

In this pre-post intervention study, we used deidentified health administrative data from a provincial data repository to identify all opioid-naive patients who underwent outpatient shoulder or knee surgery at a single institution between 2013 and 2022. An opioid restriction protocol was implemented in 2019, including an educational pamphlet, perioperative verbal education, and a standardized postoperative analgesic prescription. Outcomes analyzed included dispensed morphine milligram equivalents (MME) per patient within 180 days of surgery and chronic opioid use, defined as opioids dispensed 180-270 days after surgery. Prescriptions dispensed from any provider were included.

RESULTS

We included 8244 patients preintervention and 2205 patients postintervention in the analyses. The average MME dispensed per patient decreased by 18% (57.8 MME, 95% confidence interval 45.0-70.6). The proportion of patients who filled opioid prescriptions beyond 180 days after surgery decreased from 4.8% to 2.6% (p < 0.001). These findings remained consistent after adjustment for age, sex, socioeconomic status, mental health, and medical comorbidity in multivariable regression analyses.

CONCLUSION

The volume of opioids dispensed and the number of chronic opioid users were significantly reduced among patients who underwent outpatient orthopedic surgery after the institution-wide implementation of a multimodal postoperative opioid reduction protocol.