Opioid Prescription Trends Among Orthopaedic, Primary Care, … : JAAOS – Journal of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons
o combat the opioid epidemic. Considering the continued presence of opioids for spine-related pain management, a better understanding of the patterns of opioid prescription practices may be important for future intervention. Methods: All patients aged 18 years and older who underwent elective posterior lumbar decompression and fusion, transforaminal lumbar interbody fusion, and anterior cervical diskectomy and fusion from 2018 to 2021 were retrospectively identified. Patient demographics and surgical characteristics were collected through a Structured Query Language search and manual chart review. Opioid prescription data were collected through Pennsylvania’s Prescription Drug Monitoring Program (PDMP) database and grouped into the following prescriber categories: primary care, pain management, physiatry, and orthopaedic surgery. Results: Of the 1,062 patients, 302 (28.4%) underwent anterior cervical diskectomy and fusion, 345 (32.4%) underwent posterior lumbar decompression and fusion
