Photo Credit: Ivan-balvan

The following is a summary of “Patient-Reported Duration of Opioid Analgesic Use After Discharge from Surgical Procedures or Other Types of Acute Pain: A Scoping Review,” published in the March 2025 issue of Pain Medicine by Collins et al. 

Researchers conducted a retrospective study to review the literature on patient-reported duration and quantity of opioid analgesic use for acute pain after discharge or in outpatient settings.  

They searched PubMed for studies published between January 1, 2017, and June 27, 2022, that reported patient-reported opioid analgesic use after discharge from surgical procedures or other acute pain conditions. Data on duration (days) and quantity of use (converted to 5 mg oxycodone tablets using morphine milligram equivalents) were extracted and standardized.  

The results showed that data from 86 studies revealed substantial variability in opioid analgesic use duration and quantity across and within surgical procedures. Some minimally invasive procedures had a subset of individuals reporting no opioid use. Factors such as preoperative opioid use influenced both the duration and amount of opioid consumption. Identified gaps included limited research on non-surgical acute pain and specific surgical procedures, along with methodological differences that reduced comparability across studies.  

Investigators concluded that patient-reported opioid analgesic use for acute pain varied significantly across and within surgical procedures, likely due to patient, surgical, and institutional factors, and that a substantial number of prescribed tablets remained unused, particularly after minimally invasive procedures, findings that partly informed the Food and Drug Administration’s April 2023 opioid analgesic labeling revisions. 

Source: academic.oup.com/painmedicine/advance-article-abstract/doi/10.1093/pm/pnaf029/8096381