Does Surgical Intensity Correlate With Opioid Prescribing? Classifying Common Surgical Procedures

Objective: To examine the relationship between aspects of surgical intensity and postoperative opioid prescribing. Summary of Background Data: Despite the emergence of postoperative prescribing guidelines, recommendations are lacking for many procedures. identifying a framework based on surgical intensity to guide prescribing for those procedures in which guidelines may not exist could inform postoperative prescribing. Methods: We used clustering analysis with 4 factors of surgical intensity (intrinsic cardiac risk, pain score, median operative time, and work relative value units) to devise a classification system for common surgical procedures. We used IBM MarketScan Research Database (2010-2017) to examine the correlation between this framework with initial opioid prescribing and rates of refill for each cluster of procedures. Results: We examined 2,407,210 patients who underwent 128 commonly performed surgeries. Cluster analysis revealed 5 ordinal clusters by intensity: low, mid-low, mid, mid-high, and high. We found that as the cluster-order increased, the median amount of opioid prescribed increased: 150 oral morphine equivalents (OME) for low-intensity, 225 OME for mid-intensity, and 300 OME for high-intensity surgeries. Rates of refill increased as surgical intensity also increased, from 17.4% for low, 26.4% for mid, and 48.9% for high-intensity procedures. The odds of refill also increased as cluster-order increased; relative to low-intensity procedures, high-intensity procedures were associated with 4.37 times greater odds of refill. Conclusion: Surgical intensity is correlated with initial opioid prescribing and rates of refill. Aspects of surgical intensity could serve as a guide for procedures in which guidelines based on patient-reported outcomes are not available.

Automated summary

The study examined the correlation between aspects of surgical intensity and postoperative opioid prescribing, finding that as surgical intensity increased, both the initial opioid prescription and refill rates also increased. This suggests that aspects of surgical intensity could serve as a guide for procedures lacking guidelines based on patient-reported outcomes.