Ibuprofen prescription following adult tonsillectomy reduces postoperative opioid use

Based on a 2018 American Academy of Otolaryngology - Head and Neck Surgery survey, an average of 37 tablets of opioid medication, or about a week's worth of medication, were prescribed after adult tonsillectomy. Nearly 15% of patients will still be taking opioids one year after an initial weeklong prescription, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory medications have traditionally been avoided in adult tonsillectomy patients due to concern for increased bleeding risk from platelet dysfunction, despite little evidence supporting this claim. This study sought to demonstrate that ibuprofen prescriptions after tonsillectomy could be a safe and effective way to reduce postoperative opioid use.

This study was a retrospective chart review of patients undergoing tonsillectomy with one surgeon over three years. Half of the patients received a prescription for postoperative opioid medications and were counseled against taking ibuprofen. The other half of patients were prescribed ibuprofen following surgery and only provided with opioid analgesia as a rescue medication. The New Mexico Prescription Monitoring System was used to verify opioid prescriptions. Descriptive statistics and logistic regression were used to analyze the data.

Ninety-nine patients were included in analysis, with 53 in the first group that did not receive ibuprofen and 46 in the second group that did receive ibuprofen. There was no difference in the bleeding rate between the two groups. Significantly fewer patients in the ibuprofen group filled postoperative opioid prescriptions when compared to the group that did not receive ibuprofen (40% vs. 96.2%, p < 0.0001, OR = 0.02).

Ibuprofen is a safe and effective analgesic following adult tonsillectomy and significantly reduces the proportion of patients who must fill a postoperative opioid prescription.