Postoperative Effects of Celecoxib on Opioid Use and Pain Control After Benign Oropharyngeal Surgery

To establish how celecoxib use after tonsillectomy and adenoidectomy (T&A) and modified uvulopalatopharyngoplasty (UPPP) affect pain scores and opioid consumption.

Patients undergoing T&A or UPPP with tonsillectomy (May-October 2024) completed surveys on postoperative days (POD) 0, 1, 5, and 10 to assess pain scores and opioid use. All patients received a multimodal pain regimen, and cohorts were based on the prescription of celecoxib. The noncelecoxib cohort was a historical control group obtained via study data from Butkus et al. (December 2020-January 2023). Wilcoxon rank-sum and chi-squared tests were performed using R Studio.

Eighty patients were included (mean 33.0 years [SD = 12]), 66% female; 34% male; 55% Caucasian. The celecoxib cohort (N = 38) consumed an average of 66.2 mL (SD = 62.1) of opioids, and the non-celecoxib cohort (N = 42) received an average of 118.4 mL (SD = 91.6) (p = 0.021). There were no significant differences in pain scores reported on POD 1, 5, or 10 (p = 0.5, p = 0.2, p = 0.6, respectively).

The addition of postoperative celecoxib resulted in a significant decrease in mean opioid consumption. Our data also demonstrate that postoperative pain was controlled similarly based on patient reported pain scores, regardless of celecoxib consumption. Further investigation is warranted with larger sample sizes to determine the efficacy of postoperative celecoxib use.