Spillover effect of postop opioid prescribing

Editor's Note

After opioid prescribing recommendations were implemented for a single surgical procedure, laparoscopic gall bladder removal, opioid prescribing decreased for four other surgical procedures in this study.

The analysis involved 1,158 patients, 558 who had surgery before the opioid recommendations were implemented and 600 after implementation.

Opioid prescription size was significantly reduced for:

*laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy, 35% reduction

*hernia repair, 43%

*appendectomy, 50%

*thyroidectomy/parathyroidectomy, 50%.

The spillover effect led surgeons at the University of Michigan to prescribe some 10,000 fewer pill, the researchers concluded.