Clinical Scorecard: Opioid Prescribing Trends After Guidelines

At a Glance

Key Highlights

• 46% of patients prescribed opioids postoperatively
• 7% received only nonopioid medications
• Opioid prescribing decreased by 7.44% immediately after guideline release
• Nonopioid prescribing increased by 3.73% immediately after guideline release
• Sustained changes in prescribing patterns observed post-guideline

Guideline-Based Recommendations

Diagnosis

Management

• Encourage nonopioid analgesics for postoperative pain management

Monitoring & Follow-up

Risks

• Potential bias from electronic health record coding
• Inability to capture over-the-counter medication use

Patient & Prescribing Data

25,076 adult patients who underwent parotidectomy

Decreased opioid prescribing trends observed prior to guideline publication

Clinical Best Practices

• Adopt nonopioid analgesics as first-line treatment for postoperative pain
• Monitor prescribing patterns to ensure adherence to updated guidelines

References

• OTO Open