Researchers at the virtual American College of Clinical Congress 2020 report that guidelines on opioids prescribed to surgery patients may miss a small population of people needing a greater level of pain control, according to an Oct. 5 report from News Medical.
Surgeons have been following guidelines to reduce the number of opioid pills they prescribe to patients after surgery in response to the opioid epidemic, the report said. However, the researchers' study found the percentage of surgery patients who were unhappy with their pain control doubled after the guidelines were adopted.
That study was a follow-up to research by Cornelius Thiels, DO, the report said.
He said post-surgery pain management is important as more operations move to outpatient centers, the report said.
"People are going home sooner and sooner, and that's great, but we need to make sure their pain is well controlled after they leave the hospital as well as balancing that issue with the risk of opioid dependence," Dr. Thiels said in the report.
Read the full report here.
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