A new study published in Spine examines the postoperative narcotic consumption among workers' compensation patients after minimally invasive transforaminal lumbar interbody fusion.
The researchers examined a cohort of patients undergoing single-level minimally invasive TLIF procedures for degenerative spine pathology from 2007 to 2013. There were 136 single-level, primary minimally invasive transforaminal lumbar interbody fusion procedures included in the analysis. Forty-six of the patients were workers' compensation patients — 33.8 percent.
The workers compensation patients were younger on average — 47.8 years old compared with 57.9 years old among non-workers' compensation patients. They also had a lower comorbidity burden, at 1.85 compared with 3.42 among the non-workers compensation patients.
Here are five things to know about the procedures:
1. The workers' compensation patients had longer procedure times. Their procedures were clocked at 135.2 minutes, compared with 118.9 minutes.
2. The hospital length of stay, estimated blood loss and day of discharge were similar between both groups of patients.
3. The average oral morphine equivalent consumption was similar between the two groups after adjusting for age, ethnicity, procedure times and Charleston Comorbidity Index.
4. Even though there are concerns that workers' compensation patients use more opioids, this study demonstrated the total narcotics consumption between workers' compensation and non-workers compensation are similar during the immediate postoperative period.
5. The amount of narcotics used could still vary from after the immediate postoperative period.