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. 2021 Mar 9;5(5):920-924.
doi: 10.1016/j.jseint.2020.12.019. eCollection 2021 Sep.

What do patients think about opioids? a survey of patient perceptions regarding pain control after shoulder surgery

Vani Sabesan  1 , Mirelle Dawoud  2 , Kiran Chatha  1 , Sandra Koen  1 , Laila Khoury  2
Affiliations

What do patients think about opioids? a survey of patient perceptions regarding pain control after shoulder surgery

Vani Sabesan et al. JSES Int. .

Abstract

Background: There is an increasing need to understand what barriers are present to reduce opioid consumption in orthopedic practice. The purpose of this study was to better understand patient perceptions and understanding of opioid use after shoulder surgery.

Methods: Eighty-five patients who underwent shoulder surgery anonymously completed a 27-question survey adapted from the Maryland Public Opinion Survey on Opioids with additional demographics. The patients were asked about pain expectations after surgery, use of and access to opioids, opioid perceptions, and information provided regarding safe use, storage, and disposal of opioids.

Results: When asked about receiving information regarding opioids, only 36% of the patients reported having a conversation with their physician. When asked about appropriate use, 10% agree it is permissible to take more than the recommended dosage of prescription narcotics if they are feeling more pain than usual and 8.5% of the patients reported taking an opioid to get high multiple times in the past year. Furthermore, a majority agreed that opioids may lead to other substance abuse with 76% reporting the risk of harm to be great, and only 55% believing that opioid abuse may lead to overdose or death.

Conclusions: Surgeons need to be aware that most patients expect to have significant pain after shoulder surgery and expect to be given necessary and continued amounts of opioids. This highlights the need for better counseling and innovative nonopioid pain management protocols. At the institutional level, more effort needs to be made on providing adequate education and disposal mechanisms to help reduce diversion and misuse.

Keywords: Opioid dependence; Opioid medication; Pain management; Patient education; Patient perceptions; Shoulder surgery.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Patient-reported expected visual analog scale pain scores after an orthopedic surgery at 24 hours, 1 week, and 1 month postoperatively.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Patients’ responses when asked if opioid medications are dangerous or safe for use in managing pain.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Patient responses for storage and disposal of narcotic medications. (a) Percentage of responses to having seen or heard of information regarding safe storage of narcotics in the past 12 months. (b) Percentage of responses to having seen or heard of information regarding safe disposal of narcotics in the past 12 months.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Patient responses for where people can get prescription opioid medications to get high.
Figure 5
Figure 5
Patient responses when asked if they have had a conversation with their doctor regarding opioid medications.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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