Pain
Feature
White House opioid panel calls for more addiction specialists
Experts recommend some payment changes regarding pain management as well.
Conference Coverage
VIDEO: How to manage surgical pain in opioid addiction treatment
NEW ORLEANS – It is possible to give opioid addiction patients opioids for post-op surgical pain without increasing the risk of relapse.
From the Journals
Use multimodal analgesia protocols after minimally invasive gynecologic surgery
Review offers a roadmap for avoiding opioids while still minimizing postoperative pain relief.
Palliative Care
The opioid epidemic, surgeons, and palliative care
Recent public and professional attention to what is now called the opioid epidemic has obvious implications for surgery and palliative care....
Conference Coverage
Opioid management protocol lowered trauma patient pain medication use
A targeted pain management protocol for trauma patients addressed the problem of overprescribing of opioids.
From the Journals
Diagnostic laparoscopy pinpoints postop abdominal pain in bariatric patients
Causes of persistent abdominal pain after bariatric surgery can be identified with diagnostic laparoscopy.
From the Journals
Patients with severe obesity may have difficulty grading pain
Patients with severe obesity may have greater difficulty grading pain than do average-weight patients.
Feature
Is pain or dependency driving elevated opioid use among long-term cancer survivors?
Rates of opioid prescribing were about 1.2 times higher overall among cancer survivors up to 10 years after diagnosis, compared with matched...
From the Journals
Intraoperative ketamine makes no dent in postop delirium or pain
Postoperative delirium remains a problem without an effective solution.
From the Journals
Opioids overprescribed in elective hernia repair patients
Hernia repair patients may require less pain medication than is typically prescribed.
Conference Coverage
Surgeons can take steps to reduce excess opioids
What can surgeons do to prevent their prescriptions from adding to the opioid abuse crisis?