Editor's Note The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services on February 22 released an update to its Medicare Part D opioid prescribing mapping tool and a new Medicaid opioid prescribing mapping tool. The Medicare tool is an interactive, web-based resource that shows geographic comparisons of opioid prescribing rates at state,…

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Editor's Note Adductor canal nerve block (ACB) provides modest analgesic benefits after ambulatory arthroscopic knee surgery, including improved relief for rest pain for 8 hours and reduced opioid consumption for 24 hours, this meta-analysis finds. However, ACB did not provide any analgesic benefits and did not improve any outcomes, compared…

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Editor's Note Education of surgical interns on postoperative analgesia was effective in preparing them for judicious opioid prescribing, this study finds. An education session on postoperative analgesia prescribing was presented to 31 incoming surgical interns by surgical residents. Before the education session was started, few interns felt comfortable prescribing opioids…

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Postoperative pain management has always been a major focus of patient care. However, the opioid crisis is increasing the challenges healthcare leaders face because of the call for a national change in modalities of pain management. Regulatory bodies, specifically, are executing control to confront the opioid epidemic head on, making…

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Editor's Note The Joint Commission announced on January 9 the publication of a new R3 Report to help organizations better understand the new and revised pain assessment and management standards that will be effective July 1, 2019. The R3 Report, which is for behavioral healthcare organizations, nursing care centers, and…

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What is the current state of marijuana research? Russell: Marijuana research is unlike any other drug research. Researchers have to jump through a lot of hoops with the federal government to study it. As a result, people are using marijuana before there is enough science to prove safety and efficacy.…

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Editor's Note In this study, an ultrarestrictive opioid prescribing strategy was associated with a reduction in the number of pills dispensed without changes in postoperative pain, complications, or increases in prescription refill requests. In this case-control 2-year analysis of 1,231 women having surgery for gynecologic cancer, those having ambulatory or…

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Editor's Note In this study, patients in teaching hospitals in Michigan received significantly larger postoperative opioid prescriptions and had higher rates of high-risk prescribing compared with nonteaching hospitals in the state. The amount of opioid prescribed in initial opioid prescriptions varied 4.7-fold across hospitals, from 130 to 616 oral morphine…

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Editor's Note Excessive opioid prescribing was associated with higher postoperative opioid consumption in this study. In this analysis of 2,392 surgical patients, the quantity of opioids prescribed was significantly higher than opioid consumption, with patients reporting using only 27% of the opioids prescribed to them. Prescription size had the strongest…

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Editor's Note Becoming more sensitive to pain (ie, pain sensitization) is an important risk factor for developing persistent knee pain in osteoarthritis, this study finds. Researchers followed 852 patients over 2 years who had or were at risk of knee osteoarthritis but were free of persistent pain at the beginning…

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