"Patient Education Reduces Post-op Opioid Use" - Tracey Romero
A new study suggests that educating patients before surgery about appropriate post-operative opioid use could help in the battle against opioid addiction. Because many opioid addictions start with an opioid prescription after surgery, there has been a push to find better ways to provide adequate post-op pain control, while at the same time minimizing the number of unused pills after surgery. To see how effective patient education would be to this end, Alexis Colvin, MD, associate professor of sports medicine and orthopedics at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and chief medical officer for the United States Tennis Association, and colleagues investigated opioid use in patients undergoing arthroscopic meniscectomy. On whether doctors should also be limiting how a large a prescription they prescribe, she said, “Absolutely. Patients are less likely to take opioids if they are given a fewer amount. Furthermore, it reduces the number of narcotics that can be diverted to non-therapeutic use.”
- Alexis Colvin, MD, Associate Professor, Sports Medicine, Orthopedics, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, Chief Medical Officer, United States Tennis Association
