https://goo.gl/02HTtD
People who received prescriptions for opioid painkillers in the months before elective abdominal operations had longer hospital stays, and a higher chance of needing follow-up care in a hospital or rehabilitation facility, than patients who weren’t taking such medications before they had the same operations, the study finds.
The extra care translated into higher costs for their post-surgery care – double or triple the amount, with higher opioid doses associated with higher costs. The results are published in the April issue of the Annals of Surgery by a team from the University of Michigan Institute for Healthcare Policy and Innovation.
The new findings, and past research on the association between opioids and outcomes for other types of surgery, are enough to prompt the researchers to suggest that pre-operation opioid use should be considered a preoperative risk factor.