Protocol cuts opioid use by surgical patients

TORONTO With the recognition that physician prescribing plays a significant role in Canada’s opioid crisis, a team of researchers has developed a program called STOP Narcotics to dramatically reduce the amount of the painkillers patients are given following some common operations.

In a study presented Wednesday at the American College of Surgeons Clinical Congress in Boston, researchers from Western University showed that the STOP Narcotics protocol halved the amount of opioids prescribed after two types of out-patient surgery, while still adequately treating most patients’ post-operative pain.

“By significantly reducing the amount of opioids prescribed, this decreases the exposure risk and potential for misuse of narcotic medication,” said lead author Dr. Luke Hartford, a general surgery resident at the London, Ont., university.

“This also decreases excess medication available to be diverted to individuals for whom it was not intended,” he said, noting that the STOP Narcotics program includes a combination of patient and health provider education, with an emphasis on non-opioid pain control.

The study, which also will be published Wednesday in the Journal of the American College of Surgeons, involved 416 patients at London Health Sciences Centre and St. Joseph’s Health Care, who underwent either laparoscopic gallbladder removal or open hernia repair.