Photo Credit: Henadzi Pechan

The following is a summary of “Impact of methocarbamol on opioid use after ventral incisional hernia repair,” published in the December 2023 issue of Surgery by Desai, et al.

Finding alternatives to opioid analgesia is crucial for mitigating the risks associated with abuse, misuse, and diversion. Musculoskeletal pain often contributes significantly to postoperative pain following ventral hernia repair (VHR). For a study, researchers sought to present findings on the impact of methocarbamol on opioid prescribing patterns after VHR.

They reviewed all robotic and open VHR cases between January 2020 and July 2022. Data was collected within the Abdominal Core Health Quality Collaborative (ACHQC), with additional chart reviews conducted to assess opioid refills. A 2:1 propensity score match was performed to compare opioid prescribing between patients who were prescribed methocarbamol and those who were not.

Out of 303 patients, 101 received methocarbamol, while 202 did not. There was no significant difference in the number of patients prescribed opioids between the two groups (87.1% vs. 86.6%; P = 0.904). However, patients who received methocarbamol were prescribed significantly fewer morphine milligram equivalents (MME) at discharge compared to those who did not (60 vs. 75; P = 0.021), with no difference in the rate of opioid refills (12.5% vs. 16.6%; P = 0.386).

The addition of methocarbamol to a multimodal analgesic regimen following VHR appeared to facilitate a reduction in prescribed opioids without increasing the rate of refills.

Reference: americanjournalofsurgery.com/article/S0002-9610(23)00321-5/abstract