Persistent Opioid Use Common Following Bariatric Surgery

Nearly 1 in 12 previously opioid-naive patients who undergo bariatric surgery continue to use opioids a year after their operation, equating to a rate of new prolonged opioid use that is 46% higher than that observed in general surgery patients, according to the results of a recent study.

Understanding the prevalence of persistent opioid use following surgical procedures could help to combat the ongoing opioid abuse in the United States, according to the researchers.
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They examined data from 14,063 patients in the MBSC database, which included 95% of bariatric operations performed in Michigan. All participants were first-time bariatric surgery patients who completed surveys about their opioid use preoperatively and 1 year after surgery.

Overall, 73% participants reported not taking opioids in the 1 to 12 months before the operation, and, of these, 8.8% reported continued opioid use 1 year after their surgery. The rate of new persistent opioid use was 46% higher than the 6% reported by opioid-naïve general surgery patients.

When the researchers included bariatric surgery patients that had been taking opioids before their surgery, they found that nearly 1 in 4 patients were still taking opioids a year after their operation.

“Given the known elevated risk of cross-addiction to alcohol and illicit drugs in bariatric surgical patients,” said senior investigator Amir A Ghaferi, MD, MS, FACS, FASMBS, “providers should pay special attention to opioid use during the postsurgical period.”

“We don’t want our surgical patients to become addicted to opioids, but of course we don’t want them to be recovering at home in pain either.”

—Michael Potts

Reference:

Bariatric surgical patients at risk for newly persistent opioid use [press release]. American College of Surgeons. October 23, 2017. San Diego, California. https://www.facs.org/media/press-releases/2017/ghaferi.