Postoperative Opioid Medication Consumption Following Single-Level Lumbar Microdiscectomy Before and After...

In response to the national opioid crisis, there have been increasing efforts to decrease opioid usage in favor of nonopioid alternatives. We compared post-discharge opioid and nonopioid pain medication prescriptions in lumbar microdiscectomy (MLD) patients before and after implementation of an opioid-sparing pathway for outpatient spine surgery. Patients were grouped into pre-implementation (pre) and post-implementation (post) cohorts based on date of surgery relative to pathway implementation on September 1, 2018. Primary outcomes were the average daily morphine milligram equivalent (MME) of opioids and percentages of nonopioids prescribed at 2-week, 6-week, and 3-month follow-up. Two hundred consecutive MLD patients (100 pre, 100 post) were evaluated. Pre-implementation, average daily MME significantly decreased from 19.59 at 2 weeks, to 1.73 at 6 weeks, to 0.11 at 3 months postoperatively (p < 0.001); post-implementation, average daily MME was 14.12, 1.31, and 0.27, respectively (p < 0.001). Average daily MME at 2-week follow-up decreased by 5.48 (p < 0.001) following implementation, while the rate of nonopioid prescriptions increased from 59% to 79% (p = 0.002) overall, specifically for acetaminophen (8% vs. 47%, p < 0.001) and nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (36% vs. 61%, p < 0.001). There were no significant differences at 6-week and 3-month follow-up. Opioid usage decreased while nonopioid pain medication usage increased from discharge to 2 weeks postoperatively. Beyond 2 weeks, opioid usage decreased significantly but were comparable between pre-implementation and post-implementation.