HealthDay Reporter
TUESDAY, Nov 23, 2021 (HealthDay Information) — Addictive opioid painkillers aren’t the one choice for sufferers looking for aid following anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) knee reconstruction, researchers say.
As the USA wrestles with skyrocketing charges of opioid abuse and drug overdose deaths, the findings might come as excellent news.
After ACL surgical procedure, Advil and different nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory medication (NSAIDs), acetaminophen (Tylenol) and muscle relaxers seem to supply the identical diploma of ache management to sufferers as prescription opioids like morphine, hydrocodone or oxycodone, the small research concluded.
“Opioid medicines will be useful in managing excessive ranges of ache when appropriately prescribed,” defined research co-author Dr. Kelechi Okoroha. He’s an orthopedic surgeon and sports activities damage specialist with the Mayo Clinic in Minneapolis.
“Nevertheless, when used for lengthy durations of time, opioids will be addicting,” Okoroha cautioned. And “when used incorrectly, or in excessive doses, opioids can have unwanted side effects, together with drowsiness, confusion, slowed respiration and even demise.”
Drug overdose deaths in the USA are at an all-time excessive, the U.S. Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention reported this month — 100,000 drug-related fatalities between April 2020 and April 2021. This represents a 30% soar over the prior 12 months. And greater than three-quarters of those deaths had been attributed to opioid use alone.
For many individuals, opioid addiction begins with professional prescription painkiller use after surgical procedure. Orthopedic and backbone situations account for practically 28% of all opioid prescriptions issued in the USA, the analysis group mentioned in background notes. That has led specialists to hunt safer technique of minimizing post-surgical discomfort.
ACL surgical procedure is a standard operation, and “knee surgical procedure could cause excessive ranges of ache,” Okoroha mentioned.
However the excellent news is that the brand new research reveals that “with applicable multimodal administration, we will make this ache tolerable,” whereas eliminating opioid use, he added.
The findings had been revealed on-line not too long ago within the American Journal of Sports activities Medication.
For the research, Okoroha’s group examined their ache administration protocol with 34 sufferers who underwent ACL surgical procedure between February 2019 and January 2020.
All had been provided opioid-free ache medicines post-op, together with NSAIDs, acetaminophen and muscle relaxers. Ache ranges 10 days after ache therapy started had been in contrast with these of 28 different sufferers handled with an opioid remedy.
The investigators decided that ache aid was the identical throughout each teams, with no considerable variations when it comes to unwanted side effects (dependancy threat apart), even after accounting for age, gender and physique mass index (an ordinary indicator of weight problems standing).
The findings do not shock one professional who was not a part of Okoroha’s research group.
“I’ve truly had each of my ACLs reconstructed, so I do know the related ache properly,” mentioned Dr. David Katz, director of the Yale College Prevention Analysis Heart, in New Haven, Conn. “I consider I used opioids for a day or two each occasions, after which rapidly transitioned to non-opioid therapy.”
That therapy went past remedy. “An automatic, cooling compress across the surgical web site offered the best aid,” mentioned Katz.
“Based mostly on private expertise, I’m not in any respect stunned that opioids will be omitted from the routine, whereas preserving comparable ache administration,” he added.
However, Katz expressed some reservations in regards to the present research’s strategy.
“The routine on this research doesn’t impress me all that a lot, to be brutally trustworthy,” he mentioned. “It avoids opioids, which will be dangerously habit-forming, however features a benzodiazepine (Valium), which will be dangerously habit-forming. And there’s no point out of non-medication choices, such because the cooling compress I described,” Katz famous.
“As the positioning begins to heal, there’s a case for mild therapeutic massage as properly. Really ‘multimodal’ ache aid isn’t just totally different medicines. It ought to embody non-medication choices that work, too,” he instructed.
Nonetheless, Katz did not dismiss the work completely. “Normally, opioids are overused, whereas a whole lot of persistent ache is undertreated. So there’s actually a must broadcast any advance that may assist tackle these twin threats,” he mentioned.
Extra data
There’s extra on opioids and associated dangers on the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
SOURCES: Kelechi R. Okoroha, MD, orthopedic surgeon and sports activities damage specialist, division of sports activities medication, Mayo Clinic, Minneapolis; David Katz, MD, MPH, director, Yale College Prevention Analysis Heart, New Haven, Conn.; American Journal of Sports activities Medication, Oct. 20, 2021, on-line
