Researchers examined 253 adult deformity correction patients to examine whether preoperative narcotics use had an impact on surgical outcomes and complications. The researchers published their findings in The Spine Journal.
There were 85 patients taking narcotics and 168 patients who were not taking any pain medication preoperatively. The group taking narcotics were slightly older — 53.6 years old — compared with the non-narcotics group — 48.2 years old. More patients with degenerative than adult scoliosis were in the narcotic group.
At the most recent two-year follow-up, around 88 percent of the non-narcotics group was still not taking narcotics; 61 percent of the narcotic patients were off narcotics. There were significant postoperative improvements in the narcotic group when compared with the non-narcotics group.
Particularly, the improvement in SRS pain score was significantly higher for the narcotics group than the non-narcotics group.
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