Worries that surgery patients would have a tougher recovery if their doctors had to abide by a five-day limit on opioid pain medication prescriptions didn’t play out as expected, a new study finds.
Instead, patient-reported pain levels and satisfaction didn’t change at all for Michigan adults who had their appendix or gallbladder removed, a hernia repaired, a hysterectomy or other common operations after the state’s largest insurer put the limit in place, the study shows.
Tag: prescribing guidelines
How one state beat national surgery opioid trends
A statewide effort to treat the pain of surgery patients without increasing their risk of long-term dependence on opioids has paid off in Michigan, a study shows.
First-time opioid prescriptions got shorter, less potent after CDC guidelines
Five years ago, CDC released an evidence-based guideline to help doctors treat their patients’ pain while balancing the risks and benefits of prescription opioid medications. A new study suggests it may have started to have an effect in the first two years after its launch.
Many surgery patients get opioid prescriptions, but many don’t need to, study suggests
Surgeons can ease their patients’ pain from common operations without prescribing opioids, and avoid the possibility of starting someone on a path to long-term use, a pair of new studies suggests.