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Opioid Prescribing Practices Among Plastic Surgeons

Supplemental digital content is available in the text. Background Health care providers play an important role in the national opioid crisis with 40% of opioid-related deaths being attributed to prescription medications (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. 2018) and as many as half of the opioid pills prescribed after outpatient plastic surgery may go unused (Plast Reconstr Surg 2019;143:929-938). The purpose of this study was to provide broad foundational data regarding postoperative analgesic prescribing patterns among members of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS) to facilitate inclusion of opioid data fields in the ASPS Tracking Operations and Outcomes for Plastic Surgeons database for longitudinal evaluation. Methods A survey regarding opioid prescribing practices was electronically distributed to a representative cohort of 2555 ASPS members. Two hundred seventy-nine responses (11% response rate) were received. Results The majority of respondents reported prescribing opioids following 1 or more types of cosmetic and reconstructive procedures (90.2% and 81.7%, respectively; p = 0.0057), most commonly oxycodone and hydrocodone. Most (61.9%) reported less than 5% of patients request an opioid refill. Nonopioid medications, most commonly acetaminophen and ibuprofen/naproxen, were also prescribed but less commonly so for cosmetic (80.7–85.8%) than reconstructive (86.3–91.5%) procedures. Local anesthetic was less commonly used for mastopexy (83.7%) than augmentation (91.8%, p = 0.02). Conclusions Based on survey responses, potential areas of improvement to reduce opioid prescribing and use include provider education on the use of multimodal pain regimens including nonopioid medication and “as needed” rather than scheduled dosing, use of local anesthetic blocks, as well as patient education on opioid safety and proper disposal of unused medication.