Are We Prescribing Our Patients Too Much Pain Medication?: Best Predictors of Narcotic Usage After Spinal Surgery for Scoliosis

Conclusions:
Postoperative narcotic dosing may be improved by considering patient age, weight, sex, and preoperative pain score. The precise estimation of individual narcotic needs is complex. Patient and family education on the importance and proper method of narcotic disposal is an essential component of minimizing the availability of unused postoperative medication.

Level of Evidence:
Prognostic Level I. See Instructions for Authors for a complete description of levels of evidence.

Source: JBJS - September 20, 2016 Category: Orthopaedics Authors: Grant, D. R., Schoenleber, S. J., McCarthy, A. M., Neiss, G. I., Yorgova, P. K., Rogers, K. J., Gabos, P. G., Shah, S. A. Tags: Pediatrics, Spine Scientific Articles Source Type: research