Opioid Counseling Following Orthopaedic Surgery

Opioid Consumption After Orthopaedic Surgery: Prospective Randomized Trial on the Effects of Pre-Operative Counseling

Postoperative pain management and opioid consumption following outpatient orthopaedic surgery may be influenced by a number of variables including knowledge of safe opioid use. A prospective randomized study is designed to understand the effect of preoperative opioid counseling on postoperative opioid consumption and the typical opioid consumption patterns following common outpatient orthopaedic surgeries. The hypothesis was that patients who received preoperative opioid counseling will consume less postoperative opioid medication and experience greater satisfaction with pain management.

preoperative counseling consists of education with a brief multi-media presentation in the preoperative area on the day of surgery using a handheld tablet. The message of the preoperative counseling consisted of: 1) Background on the opioid epidemic including basic facts and consequences, 2) Description of risk factors for opioid abuse and how to consume opioids safely, 3) Information on the specific opioid the patient was prescribed and the anticipated amount and duration of use postoperatively, 4) Encouraging the use of non-opioid therapy prior to taking the prescribed opioids or quickly transitioning to non-opioid medications postoperatively, and 5) Contact information and instructions to call if the patient experienced any adverse events and/or if additional pain medication is needed.

Patients asked to keep daily diary which includes number of pills consumed during the post-operative period

MEQs is a standardized method of comparing different types of pain medication with a gold-standard. All pain medication can be converted to MEQs

Inclusion Criteria: Patients undergoing shoulder, elbow, wrist, knee, foot, and/or ankle surgery Exclusion Criteria: male of female less than 18 years old patients schedule to undergo inpatient procedures patients undergoing surgeries distal to the wrist patients undergoing surgeries under local anesthesia only