Study of urology procedures points to need for further opioid prescribing guidelines

In this video, Laura Gressler, MS, PhD, discusses the Urology Practice paper, “National Long-Term Trends in Postoperative Opioid Prescribing in Ambulatory Urology Procedures.” Gressler is an assistant professor at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences College of Pharmacy in Little Rock.

Transcription:

The abstract mentions a need for guidelines for narcotic prescribing habits beyond the 7-day postsurgical period; could you provide some information on what would ideally be contained in such guidelines?

I came up with 5 different things. [These include] specific criteria for assessing the patient's pain levels and determining the actual necessity of continued opioid use, the use of nonopioid alternatives, which, of course, I just mentioned, we saw a rise in that. That's good, but we need formal recommendations for nonopioid pain management strategies and medications. Monitoring follow-up is always helpful, so procedures for monitoring patients' opioid use and scheduled follow-up appointments to reassess pain management needs, because those may change over time. Patient education is always helpful, so guidelines for educating patients on the risks of long-term opioid use and the safe disposal also of unused medications so they don't go into the wrong hands. And then provider coordination, so strategies for coordinating pain management among different health care providers to prevent overprescription because a lot of our patients also that we analyzed had previous pain conditions, and so making sure that we coordinate with the other providers to see, how are they dealing with that pain, are they managing that? And then, how does that correspond with the current procedure that they're undergoing?

This transcription was edited for clarity.