Pubdate: Sun, 27 Mar 2016
Source: New York Times (NY)
Copyright: 2016 The New York Times Company
Contact: http://www.nytimes.com/ref/membercenter/help/lettertoeditor.html
Website: http://www.nytimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/298
Author: Scott Sigman
Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v16/n162/a06.html

OPIOID USE AND ABUSE

Patients and Doctors Discuss the Management of Drugs That Can Be 
Helpful or Harmful.

To the Editor: Re "States Push to Curb Painkiller Overuse" (Business 
Day, March 12):

As an orthopedic surgeon in Massachusetts, I applaud the efforts of 
my state to limit patients' excessive opioid use. Every year in this 
country, more than 70 million post-surgical patients receive opioids, 
and research shows that one in 15 will go on to long-term use, 
indicating that the surgical setting has become an inadvertent 
gateway to the overall societal epidemic.

While prescribing guidelines are an important step in addressing this 
issue, the best way for hospitals to take immediate action is to put 
in place strategies to minimize preventable opioid exposure.

In my experience, using a combination approach of nonopioid 
medications before, during and after surgery has yielded a measurable 
reduction in opioids, making their use the exception, not the rule, 
when it comes to post-surgical pain.

I'm encouraged to see this strategy being put in place at leading 
hospitals across the country, and likewise by the fact that 
Massachusetts is leading the way in opioid minimization for patients.

SCOTT SIGMAN

North Chelmsford, Mass.

The writer is a former chief of orthopedics at Lowell (Mass.) General 
Hospital and a consultant to Pacira Pharmaceuticals.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom