Orthopedic researchers from New York University (NYU), in New York City, have proposed standardizing prescribing patterns for patients after fracture surgery so as to include low-dose opioids.
In a paper presented at the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons (AAOS) 2021 Annual Meeting, researchers from NYU reported on the implementation of their multimodal strategy, dubbed the "lopioid protocol."
As previously reported by Medscape Medical News, according to the 2019 National Survey on Drug Use and Health, orthopedic surgeons are the third highest opioid prescribers in the United States.
Dr Kennneth Egol
Kennneth A. Egol, MD, vice chair of the Department of Orthopedic Surgery at NYU, who is the first author of the study, was motivated to help create the protocol following misconceptions that orthopedic surgeons were helping to fuel the opioid epidemic.
Egol points to the year 1995, when pain became the fifth vital sign after body temperature, pulse rate, respiratory rate, and blood pressure.
Since then, in light of the opioid epidemic, the focus of physicians has shifted away from prescribing strong pain medication and reducing pain scores to zero to instead reducing pain to a manageable level.
Reducing opioid prescriptions can be challenging when patients are prescribed an anti-inflammatory and they subsequently ask their physician for a "pain pill." Patients sometimes don't understand that inflammation is what causes pain.
