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Preoperative Opioid Use and Readmissions Following Surgery

  • Among the Medicare patient population who undergo elective surgery, 55% were opioid naïve while the remaining 45% filled one or more opioid prescriptions in the 12 months before surgery.
  • Patients were grouped into five levels of preoperative opioid exposure – naïve, minimal, low, moderate, and high/chronic.
  • Higher levels of preoperative opioid exposure were associated with higher rates of opioid-related readmissions, pain-related readmissions, respiratory-related readmissions, and all-cause readmissions.


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Tang R, Santosa KB, Vu JV, et al. Preoperative Opioid Use and Readmissions Following Surgery [published online ahead of print, 2020 Mar 13]. Ann Surg. 2020;10.1097/SLA.0000000000003827. doi:10.1097/SLA.0000000000003827