OBJECTIVE:To define prevalence and changes in opioid use before and after liver transplant.
BACKGROUND:Opioid use in liver transplantation is poorly understood and has potential associated morbidity.
...METHODS:Using a national dataset of employer-based insurance claims, we identified 1257 adults who underwent liver transplantation between 12/2009-2/2015. We categorized patients based on their duration of opioid fills over the year before and after transplant admission as opioid-naïve/no fills, chronic opioid use (≥120 day supply), and intermittent use (all other use). We calculated risk-adjusted prevalence of peritransplant opioid fills, assessed changes in opioid use after transplant, and identified correlates of persistent or increased opioid use posttransplant.
RESULTS:Overall, 45% of patients filled ≥1 opioid prescription in the year before transplant (35% intermittent use, 10% chronic). Posttransplant, 61% of patients filled an opioid prescription 0-2 months after discharge, and 21% filled an opioid between 10-12 months after discharge. Among previously opioid-naïve patients, 4% developed chronic use posttransplant. Among patients with pretransplant opioid use, 84% remained intermittent or increased to chronic use, and 73% of chronic users remained chronic users after transplant. Pretransplant opioid use (risk factor) and hepatobiliary malignancy (protective) were the only factors independently associated with risk of persistent or increased posttransplant opioid use.
CONCLUSION:Prescription opioid use is common before and after liver transplant, with intermittent and chronic use largely persisting, and a small development of new chronic use posttransplant. To minimize the morbidity of long-term opioid use, it is critical to improve pain management and optimize opioid use before and after liver transplant.
Background
Excessive opioid prescribing is common in surgical oncology, with 72% of prescribed opioids going unused after curative-intent surgery. In this study, we sought to reduce opioid ...prescribing after breast and melanoma procedures by designing and implementing an intervention focused on education and prescribing guidelines, and then evaluating the impact of this intervention.
Methods
In this single-institution study, we designed and implemented an intervention targeting key factors identified in qualitative interviews. This included mandatory education for prescribers, evidence-based prescribing guidelines, and standardized patient instructions. After the intervention, interrupted time-series analysis was used to compare the mean quantity of opioid prescribed before and after the intervention (July 2016–September 2017). We also evaluated the frequency of opioid prescription refills.
Results
During the study, 847 patients underwent breast or melanoma procedures and received an opioid prescription. For mastectomy or wide local excision for melanoma, the mean quantity of opioid prescribed immediately decreased by 37% after the intervention (
p
= 0.03), equivalent to 13 tablets of oxycodone 5 mg. For lumpectomy or breast biopsy, the mean quantity of opioid prescribed decreased by 42%, or 12 tablets of oxycodone 5 mg (
p
= 0.07). Furthermore, opioid prescription refills did not significantly change for mastectomy/wide local excision (13% vs. 14%,
p
= 0.8), or lumpectomy/breast biopsy (4% vs. 5%,
p
= 0.7).
Conclusion
Education and prescribing guidelines reduced opioid prescribing for breast and melanoma procedures without increasing the need for refills. This suggests further reductions in opioid prescribing may be possible, and provides rationale for implementing similar interventions for other procedures and practice settings.
In patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) using biological therapy, non-adherence leads to anti-drug antibody formation and reduced effectiveness. Little is known about the optimal level of ...adherence in IBD patients on biologic therapy. We aimed to identify the association between adherence and disease flare and determine an optimal level of adherence.
We analyzed claims data for IBD patients prescribed adalimumab (ADA) and certolizumab (CZP) from the Truven Health MarketScan Commercial Claims and Encounters database from 2009 to 2013. Adherence was calculated using the medication possession ratio (MPR) from initiation until flare occurrence. A disease flare was defined as any hospitalization or new steroid prescription>90-days after drug initiation. The optimal MPR was determined using log-rank testing. The association between the optimal MPR and flare was assessed using multivariable Cox-Proportional hazards ratio.
There were 6,048 patients who were prescribed ADA (n=5,325) or CZP (n=723) for IBD. The average age was 41 years (±15) and 54% were female. The optimal MPR identified was 0.86 for ADA and 0.87 for CZP; 24% of the patients were below this level. Adjusting for age, gender, and concomitant medications at initiation, patients who were adherent above these levels had a 25% lower risk of flare for ADA (HR: 0.75, 95%CI: 0.67-0.83, P<0.01) and 41% lower risk for CZP (HR: 0.59, 95%CI: 0.46-0.76, P<0.01).
Patients who delay refills >2 days on average every 2 weeks of their subcutaneous biologics have significantly increased risk of flare. Further studies to improve adherence among those patients who consistently delay medication use are necessary.
BACKGROUND:An estimated 0.6% of the U.S. population identifies as transgender and an increasing number of patients are presenting for gender-related medical and surgical services. Utilization of ...health care services, especially surgical services, by transgender patients is poorly understood beyond survey-based studies. In this article, our aim is 2-fold; first, we intend to demonstrate the utilization of datasets generated by insurance claims data as a means of analyzing gender-related health services, and second, we use this modality to provide basic demographic, utilization, and outcomes data about the insured transgender population.
METHODS:The Truven MarketScan Database, containing data from 2009 to 2015, was utilized, and a sample set was created using the Gender Identity Disorder diagnosis code. Basic demographic information and utilization of gender-affirming procedures was tabulated.
RESULTS:We identified 7,905 transgender patients, 1,047 of which underwent surgical procedures from 2009 to 2015. Our demographic results were consistent with previous survey-based studies, suggesting transgender patients are on average young adults (average age = 29.8), and geographically diverse. The most common procedure from 2009 to 2015 was mastectomy. Complications of all gender-affirming procedures was 5.8%, with the highest rate of complications occurring with phalloplasty. There was a marked year-by-year increase in utilization of surgical services.
CONCLUSION:Transgender care and gender confirming surgery are an increasing component of health care in the United States. The data contained in existing databases can provide demographic, utilization, and outcomes data relevant to providers caring for the transgender patient population.This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives License 4.0 (CCBY-NC-ND), where it is permissible to download and share the work provided it is properly cited. The work cannot be changed in any way or used commercially without permission from the journal.
This cohort study uses data from the Health and Retirement Study and Medicare claims to examine the association between loneliness and postoperative mortality after elective vs nonelective surgery ...among older adults.
OBJECTIVE:To evaluate the effects of shared decision making using a simple decision aid for opioid prescribing after hysterectomy.
METHODS:We conducted a prospective quality initiative study ...including all patients undergoing hysterectomy for benign, nonobstetric indications between March 1, 2018, and July 31, 2018, at our academic institution. Using a visual decision aid, patients received uniform education regarding postoperative pain management. They were then educated on the departmentʼs guidelines regarding the maximum number of tablets recommended per prescription and the mean number of opioid tablets used by a similar cohort of patients in a previously published study at our institution. Patients were then asked to choose their desired number of tablets to receive on discharge. Structured telephone interviews were conducted 14 days after surgery. The primary outcome was total opioids prescribed before compared with after implementation of the decision aid. Secondary outcomes included opioid consumption, patient satisfaction, and refill requests after intervention implementation.
RESULTS:Of 170 eligible patients, 159 (93.5%) used the decision aid (one patient who used the decision aid was subsequently excluded from the analysis owing to significant perioperative complications), including 110 (69.6%) laparoscopic, 40 (25.3%) vaginal, and eight (5.3%) abdominal hysterectomies. Telephone surveys were completed for 89.2% (n=141) of participants. Student’s t-test showed that patients who participated in the decision aid (post–decision aid cohort) were discharged with significantly fewer oral morphine equivalents than patients who underwent hysterectomy before implementation of the decision aid (pre–decision aid cohort) (92±35 vs 160±81, P<.01), with no significant change in the number of requested refills (9.5% n=15 vs 5.7% n=14, P=.15). In the post–decision aid cohort, 76.6% of patients (n=121) chose fewer tablets than the guideline-allotted maximum. Approximately 76% of patients (n=102) reported having leftover tablets.
CONCLUSION:This quality improvement initiative illustrates that a simple decision aid can result in a significant decrease in opioid prescribing without compromising patient satisfaction or postoperative pain management.
This cohort study evaluates data from the Intern Health Study and uses the 9-item Patient Health Questionnaire to estimate the prevalence of depression among surgical interns.
To estimate high-risk prescribing patterns among opioid prescriptions from U.S. surgeons; to characterize the distribution of high-risk prescribing among surgeons.
National data on the prevalence of ...opioid prescribing and high-risk opioid prescribing by U.S. surgeons are lacking.
Using the IQVIA Prescription Database, which reports dispensing from 92% of U.S. pharmacies, we identified opioid prescriptions from surgeons dispensed in 2019 to patients ages ≥12 years. "High-risk" prescriptions were characterized by: days supplied >7, daily dosage ≥50 oral morphine equivalents (OMEs), opioid-benzodiazepine overlap, and extended-release/long-acting opioid. We determined the proportion of opioid prescriptions, total OMEs, and high-risk prescriptions accounted for by "high-volume surgeons" (those in the ≥95th percentile for prescription counts). We used linear regression to identify characteristics associated with being a high-volume surgeon.
Among 15,493,018 opioid prescriptions included, 7,036,481 (45.4%) were high-risk. Among 114,610 surgeons, 5753 were in the 95th percentile or above for prescription count, with ≥520 prescriptions dispensed in 2019. High-volume surgeons accounted for 33.5% of opioid prescriptions, 52.8% of total OMEs, and 44.2% of high-risk prescriptions. Among high-volume surgeons, 73.9% were orthopedic surgeons and 60.6% practiced in the South. Older age, male sex, specialty, region, and lack of affiliation with academic institutions or health systems were correlated with high-risk prescribing.
The top 5% of surgeons account for 33.5% of opioid prescriptions and 45.4% of high-risk prescriptions. Quality improvement initiatives targeting these surgeons may have the greatest yield given their outsized role in high-risk prescribing.
In surgery, quality assessment encourages improved care delivery, better outcomes, and helps determine surgical efficacy. Quality is important from a patient, provider, payer, and policy maker ...standpoint. However, given the growth of outpatient procedures, expansion of surgical indications to enhance function, and the decline of perioperative morbidity and mortality, many traditional quality metrics, such as mortality, readmissions, and complications, may not fully capture quality. As such, patient-reported outcomes (PROs) can be used to complement the established clinical outcomes and describe surgical efficacy and quality from the patient’s point of view. Generic and disease-specific PRO measures capture health-related quality of life, functional status, and pain. These measures permit a more holistic understanding of how surgery affects different aspects of a patient’s health, augment other clinical outcomes, and are commonly used to determine efficacy in clinical trials. Moreover, our national reimbursement structure is currently evolving to include PROs for certain surgical conditions in measures of quality and with direct linkage to payments. Even so, there continues to be challenges in the implementation of PRO measures in everyday surgical practice, with questions of optimal administration and how to integrate these measures into provider work flow. Despite these challenges, PROs provide vital information regarding surgical efficacy and quality and are critical in the delivery of patient-centered care.
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