Evaluating opioid prescribing patterns following discharge from elective surgical procedures: a worrying trend during the ‘opioid crisis’ — an audit of elective surgical procedures

Background The ‘opioid crisis’ has reached epidemic proportions globally. Importantly, 30% of opioid dependency stem from opioids obtained on hospital discharge prescriptions. Aim The aim of this study is to evaluate opioid prescription patterns on discharge of post-operative patients in an Irish Hospital. Methods A retrospective cohort study was undertaken in a single institution during the 5 year eligibility period (January 2017–October 2021). Comparisons in opioid prescription patterns following minor (inguinal hernia repair (IHR), intermediate (laparoscopic cholecystectomy (LC)) and major (colonic resection (CR)) were made. Descriptive statistics were performed using SPSS version 26.0 Results In total, 300 patients were included in this study with mean age 59.6 years (range: 20–92). Of these, 112 patients underwent IHR (37.3%), 116 patients underwent LC (38.7%), and 72 patients underwent CR (24.0%). The mean age at diagnosis was 61 years, 53 years and 58 years for IHR, LC and CR, respectively ( P < 0.001). Patients undergoing CR were more likely to have greater comorbidity burden (3.1 vs. 1.2 (IHR) vs. 1.8 (LC) respectively ( P = 0.030). On discharge, 27.8% of CR patients received opioids (20/72) compared to 24.1% of IHR (28/116) and 15.9% of LC (18/113) patients, respectively ( P = 0.126). Conclusion We observed considerable variability in opioid prescribing patterns following minor, intermediate and major operations in our centre. Care is required when prescribing opioids in the post-operative setting, and opioid prescription guidelines are required to both tackle and prevent an escalation of this ‘opioid crisis’.