Big Drop Seen in Kids Getting Opioids After Surgery

By Denise Mann
HealthDay Reporter

MONDAY, April 4, 2022 (HealthDay News) — Efforts to chop again on dangerous opioid use for ache after surgical procedure are trickling right down to youngsters.

New analysis reveals that fewer Americans beneath the age of 18 have been prescribed narcotics to deal with surgical ache between 2014 and 2017, and these numbers dropped much more quickly starting in late 2017.

While opioids can assist youngsters handle gentle or reasonable ache, latest research have proven that youngsters do exactly as properly with restricted or no opioids. Additionally, opioids carry their justifiable share of dangers for youths, together with respiratory despair (gradual and shallow respiration) and the potential for abuse. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention just lately urged medical doctors to prescribe different ache medicine every time doable in an effort to assist stem the nationwide epidemic of opioid use and overdose deaths.

“Our findings recommend that surgical suppliers are prescribing fewer opioids for procedures the place they may not be wanted,” stated research writer Dr. Tori Sutherland, an attending anesthesiologist at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. “If applicable in your youngster, nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory medicine [NSAIDs] like ibuprofen might be pretty much as good or higher than opioids for procedures related to gentle to reasonable ache, like dental surgical procedure or adenoidectomy,” stated Sutherland.

For the research, Sutherland’s staff tapped into insurance coverage information on greater than 124,000 youngsters youthful than 18 who underwent certainly one of eight surgical procedures between 2014 and 2019, together with tonsillectomies, dental surgical procedures, appendix elimination or knee surgical procedure.

The total proportion of youngsters who had an opioid prescription stuffed within the week after their surgical procedure dropped throughout adolescents, school-aged youngsters, and preschool-aged youngsters throughout the five-year research interval.

Broken down by age group, prescriptions dropped from simply over 78% to 48% for adolescents, from practically 54% to 25.5% amongst school-aged youngsters, and from about 30% to 11.5% for preschool-aged youngsters, the investigators discovered.

What’s extra, the typical morphine milligram equal declined by roughly 50% throughout all three age teams. (Morphine is an opioid ache killer.)

Parents ought to ask about non-opioid alternate options if their youngsters are having probably painful surgical procedure, Sutherland stated.

“If the process is related to gentle to reasonable ache, and they’re allowed to take an NSAID [or Tylenol], they may not want opioids most often,” she stated. “For main surgical procedures requiring an inpatient keep, mother and father can focus on with their medical doctors if alternate options, like a nerve block or non-opioid medicines, may be applicable.”

The research was revealed on-line April 4 within the journal Pediatrics.

Dr. Lorraine Kelley-Quon is a pediatric surgeon at Children’s Hospital, Los Angeles. She has studied opioid use amongst youngsters prior to now.

“This research provides much-needed epidemiologic information outlining how opioid prescribing practices have modified in recent times for youngsters present process surgical procedure,” stated Kelley-Quon, who was not concerned with the brand new analysis. “Parents ought to proceed to interact their surgeons and well being care suppliers in discussions about find out how to safely use, retailer and eliminate prescription opioids when wanted and choices for non-opioid ache reduction methods.”

More info

The American Academy of Pediatrics presents ideas for fogeys on find out how to handle a baby’s ache after surgical procedure.

SOURCES: Tori Sutherland, MD, attending anesthesiologist, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia; Lorraine Kelley-Quon, MD, pediatric surgeon, Children’s Hospital, Los Angeles; Pediatrics, April 4 2022, on-line