The patient with substance use disorder

The purpose of this review is to describe the anesthesiologist's perioperative challenges when caring for the patient with substance use disorder and, in particular, opioid use disorder.

With the introduction of the fifth edition of Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, psychiatric literature recently changed the criteria for defining substance use disorder. In patients with known opioid use disorder, who are undergoing elective surgery and also on maintenance therapy, use of multimodal analgesia is essential to treat postoperative pain.

Patients with substance use disorders and, in particular, those addicted to opioids, present a challenge to the anesthesiologist. Whether the diagnosis of substance use disorder is known or unknown and whether on maintenance therapy, in withdrawal, or remission, patients with this condition represent a special surgical population whose perioperative care can influence their postoperative and disease course for many years.