Opioid prescribing practices and medication use following urogynecological surgery.

BACKGROUND: Opioid abuse is a growing epidemic in the United States, with opioid overdose becoming a leading cause of death. There is wide variation in prescription practices for post-operative opioids due to absence of guidelines. The purpose of this study is to examine postoperative opioid prescribing patterns after urogynecologic surgery and determine usage and management of opioid pills by patients. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This is an observational, prospective study of female patients (N = 143) who underwent urogynecologic (prolapse or incontinence) surgery from June to December 2017 at a single academic center. Patients were surveyed regarding their pain medication use 30 days postoperatively. Survey questions included preoperative pain medication use, quantity of opioid pills consumed, need for additional opioid prescription, and management of remaining pills. T-test and one-way Anova were used for comparison of continuous variables and chi-squared test used for comparison of categorical variables. RESULTS: Of 143 eligible patients, 99 (69%) responded; 62% of respondent patients underwent vaginal surgery, 22% abdominal surgery with or without vaginal surgery, and 15% underwent other procedures. Postoperatively, 81.8% of patients were prescribed opioids. The average number of tablets prescribed ranged from 12.4 to 17.4 depending on the procedure. 54.3% of patients reported using less than half of their prescribed opioid prescription. Of the patients who had excess opioid tablets, only 8.6% reported discarding their opioids. CONCLUSION: To date, no guidelines exist on prescribing opioids postoperatively. Opioids are overprescribed post-operatively with over half of patients using less than half of the opioids prescribed to them.

Patient Satisfaction and Refill Rates After Decreasing Opioids Prescribed for Urogynecologic Surgery.

BACKGROUND: The opioid epidemic has been influenced in part by physician overprescribing. Several studies have evaluated opioid use after urogynecologic surgery, with limited data on postoperative guidelines. The objective of this study was to investigate the effect of implementing a multimodal, opioid-sparing analgesia regimen on opioid use, patient satisfaction, and refill rates. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This was a retrospective observational study of female patients undergoing urogynecologic surgery at an academic center from 2017 to 2019, before and after introduction of an opioid-sparing multimodal regimen protocol advocating for standing ibuprofen and acetaminophen. Demographic information, opioid prescription details (oral morphine equivalent [OME]), and refill rate data were collected from the chart. Postoperative opioid use and satisfaction score (for the after group using Likert scale) was obtained by telephone survey. t Test was used to compare continuous variables, and χ2/Fischer exact test was used to compare categorical variables. RESULTS: Two hundred ninety-two patients were eligible and contacted. One hundred one patients responded before protocol implementation and 102 responded after protocol implementation. The median number of tablets prescribed was 14.5 (108.5 OME; IQR, 10) and 10 (75 OME; IQR, 5; P < 0.01) preprotocol and postprotocol, whereas the mean number of tablets used was 10 (75 OME; IQR, 13) and 3 (22.5 OME; IQR, 10; P = 0.0009) preprotocol and postprotocol, respectively. Refill rate did not differ significantly (11% preprotocol vs 7% postprotocol P = 0.32) Mean satisfaction score was 4.3 (SD, 0.9). CONCLUSIONS: A multimodal analgesia regimen limiting postoperative opioids decreased postoperative opioid prescribing and consumption while maintaining similar patient satisfaction and refill rates.