Team Approach: Use of Opioids in Orthopaedic Practice

»: The opioid epidemic represents a serious health burden on patients across the United States.

»: This epidemic is particularly pertinent to the field of orthopaedics because it is one of the fields providing the highest volume of opioid prescriptions.

»: The use of opioids before orthopaedic surgery has been associated with decreased patient-reported outcomes, increased surgery-related complications, and chronic opioid use.

»: Several patient-level factors, such as preoperative opioid consumption and musculoskeletal and mental health conditions, contribute to the prolonged use of opioids after surgery, and various screening tools for identifying high-risk drug use patterns are available.

»: The identification of these high-risk patients should be followed by strategies aimed at mitigating opioid misuse, including patient education, opioid use optimization, and a collaborative approach between health care providers.