Editor's Note The Joint Commission has released revised requirements for the advanced disease-specific care certification for total hip and total knee replacement (THKR). The requirements, which are designed to align with the updated AAOS clinical practice guidelines, go into effect July 1, 2024 and focus largely on addressing opioids and…

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Editor's Note: An FDA-approved anti-inflammatory drug used to treat poisoning and liver damage could help reduce patient requests for opioids after surgery, according to findings published October 25 in the Future Medicine journal Pain Management. The study involved 50 patients who were given either a set dose of the anti-inflammatory…

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Editor's Note A new study finds that while opioid prescriptions for postoperative pain relief have continued to decline, that downward trend has slowed since 2020, indicating the need for continued work to right-size opioid prescriptions for surgery patients. The findings were published by JAMA Network on December 7. Researchers looking…

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Editor's Note A large study led by researchers at McMaster University in Ontario, Canada, identified 10 predictors of opioid overdose after prescription for chronic pain, as published by CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal) on October 23. While there are screening tools to identify patients at higher risk of addiction or…

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Editor's Note A 5-day limit on opioid pain medication prescriptions in Michigan did not negatively impact patient-reported pain levels or satisfaction, JAMA Network October 13 reports. The study, titled "Changes in surgical opioid prescribing and patient-reported outcomes after implementation of an insurer opioid prescribing limit," was published by JAMA Health…

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Editor's Note This cohort study, published by the British Journal of Anesthesia in September 2023, finds that surgical patients who are discharged with prescribed opioids have higher risks of hospital readmission and mortality.  The study looked at data from a territory-wide retrospective cohort of patients in Hong Kong who underwent…

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Editor's Note This study led by researchers at the Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, examines the association between intraoperative opioid administration and postoperative pain and opioid use. A total of 61, 249 surgical patients were included in the analysis. The researchers found that increased intraoperative: fentanyl and…

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Editor's Note A new study led by researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) finds reduced opioid administration during surgery unintendedly increased postoperative pain and opioid use. The retrospective cohort study included 61,249 individuals who underwent noncardiac surgery with general anesthesia from April 2016 to March 2020. The maximal pain score…

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Editor's Note The Food and Drug Administration (FDA), on April 13, updated prescribing information for all opioid pain medications, including requiring all packaging to have updated labeling and safety information. This includes stating that: for both immediate-release (IR) and extended release/long acting (ER/LA) opioid pain medications, the risk of overdose…

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Editor's Note The American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA), on March 29, issued a news report urging the public to learn to recognize and respond to an opioid overdose, now that the Food and Drug Administration has approved naloxone for sale over the counter. Naloxone, which is commonly sold as a…

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