The opioid epidemic in this country is a public health emergency that cannot be ignored. What underlies this epidemic, especially as it relates to children and teens? Harbaugh et al (10.1542/peds.2017-2439) decided to look at opioid refills 90 to 180 days after 13 routine surgical procedures in teens and young adults who were opioid naïve compared to non-surgical teens and young adult patients. Sadly, persistent opioid use was found in 4.8% of the more than 88,000 surgical patients studied compared to 0.1% in the non-surgical teen and young adult patients. The authors characterize the types of surgeries with most persistent opioid use as well as risk factors for such use.
So, what might we do to reduce the chances that a young patient receiving surgery not become opioid dependent post-op? Equally important, just how valid are the findings in this study that used coding data on prescription refills to imply persistent opioid use was a surgical complication of prescribing opioids for pain? We asked pediatric surgeon Dr. Charles Snyder from Mercy Children’s Hospital in Kansas City (10.1542/peds.2017-3054) to make an editorial incision into the findings presented in this study, and his commentary cuts into the data in terms of what we can conclude with some validity and what we cannot. You’ll find both the study and commentary anything but a pain to read so check both out and learn more.
