Comparing Opioid Prescription Patterns in Total Joint Arthroplasty Patients
Status:
Completed
Trial end date:
2018-08-26
Target enrollment:
Participant gender:
Summary
The United States constitutes <5% of the world's population but over 80% of the opioid supply
and 99% of the hydrocodone supply. In 2014, there were 18,893 deaths from prescription drug
overdose, and orthopaedic surgeons are the third highest prescribing physicians for opioids.
Surgeons often prescribe opioids to minimize postoperative pain and to reduce the likelihood
of readmission for pain. Available data suggests that orthopaedic surgeons are the most
likely physicians to prescribe opioids to Medicare patients, whose opioid prescriptions are
over 7 times more likely to come from an orthopaedic surgeon than another type of physician,
but orthopaedic surgeons also had the highest readmission rate for post-operative pain. Many
studies have investigated the utilization of opioids after surgery to assess surgeon's
tendencies to overprescribe, demographics of those likely to overuse, and adverse events of
opioid abusers.
The primary purpose of this randomized controlled trial is to determine whether prescribing
fewer opioid pills per prescription reduces the total amount of opioids taken, even while
allowing equal total opioid availability via increased frequency of prescription
availability.