People who use narcotics daily on average after surgery for spinal deformities can have worse outcomes, according to a new study. The side effects include longer intensive care unit stays and more severe postop disability. The findings of the study are published in the journal Spine. "We're not suggesting that people facing ASD surgery stop taking opioids on the basis of this study, but we do think it's worthwhile having more conversations with physicians to see if there are alternatives or ways of reducing opioid use before surgery," says Micheal Raad, M.D., orthopaedic surgery research fellow at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and the paper's senior author.
‘Daily narcotic users can turn old faster and have a higher prevalence of depression than nondaily users.’
Tweet it Now
The proportion of patients with adult spinal deformity (ASD), a disorder that encompasses most forms of adult scoliosis, who use opioids for pain control has been shown to be as high as 70 percent. While previous studies have shown that preoperative narcotic use is linked with poor outcomes for other elective orthopaedic surgeries, spinal fusions and total knee arthroplasties , none examined the effects on ASD patients specifically, say the scientists.
To understand how outcomes such as length of stay and severity of disability were affected by preoperative daily opioid use for this subset of patients, the research team identified 475 eligible patients from 18 surgical centers across the country who had undergone surgery for ASD between January 2008 and March 2015.
Patients' self-reported narcotic use was categorized as either daily or nondaily, and other patient data -- such as baseline health characteristics and outcomes -- were collected preoperatively and at six weeks, one year and two years postoperatively.
The average age of the patients was 58 years and 79 percent (334 of 425) were women.
Advertisement
Daily narcotic users had more comorbidities, more severe back pain and greater disability, as measured by various clinical scales. Daily users had 70 percent higher odds for a prolonged length of hospital stay, an average of 16 hours longer stay in the intensive care unit and 690 percent higher odds of using narcotics daily two years after the operation.
Advertisement
With an increasingly aging U.S. population, surgery for ASD is expected to rise sharply over the upcoming decade, and given the substantial levels of pain and disability this patient population is subject to, daily narcotic use is widespread, say the scientists.
"We hope that this information serves as a foundation for future research into the prevalence of daily narcotic use in this patient group and provides clinicians with a framework for patient risk stratification and preoperative counseling," adds Khaled Kebaish, M.D., F.R.C.S.C., professor of orthopaedic surgery at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and the paper's lead author.
Source-Eurekalert