Abstract
Over the course of the last decade, there has been a drastic increase in the amount of opioid prescriptions. While some are for chronic pain, a large portion is related to postsurgical acute pain. In training institutions throughout the country, resident physicians are tasked with prescribing these medications. However, there is a general lack of formalized opioid and postoperative analgesia education provided to surgical residents. This can lead to an excess amount of opioids prescribed and maybe in a setting where an alternative medication could have provided the same benefit.
Recent studies regarding opioid prescribing patterns have revealed that excess amounts are often provided in surgical patients. Determining average opioid use for certain surgical procedures in conjunction with improving opioid prescribing education and alternative analgesic methods will hopefully not only improve postoperative pain management but may limit the amount of opioids prescribed following surgery.
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Boscoe, E., Rodriguez, K.D., Johnson, A.P. (2021). Opioid Prescribing Education in Surgical Training. In: Svider, P.F., Pashkova, A.A., Johnson, A.P. (eds) Perioperative Pain Control: Tools for Surgeons. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-56081-2_4
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