Effect of Didactic Training on Barriers and Biases to Treatment of Opioid Use Disorder: Meeting the Ongoing Needs of Patients with Opioid Use Disorder in the Emergency Department during the COVID-19 Pandemic

In the wake of COVID-19, morbidity and mortality due to Opioid Use Disorder (OUD) is beginning to emerge as a second wave of deaths of despair. Medication assisted treatment (MAT) for opioid use disorder MAT delivered by Emergency Medicine (EM) providers can decrease mortality due to OUD; however, there are numerous cited barriers to MAT delivery. We examined the impact of MAT training on these barriers among EM residents in an urban, tertiary care facility with a large EM residency. Training included the scripted and standardized content from the Provider Clinical Support System curriculum. Residents completed pre- and post-training surveys on knowledge, barriers, and biases surrounding OUD. We performed Wilcoxon matched-pairs signed-ranks test to detect statistical differences. Of 74 residents, 49 (66%) completed the pre-training survey, and 34 (69%) of these completed the follow-up survey. Residents reported improved preparedness to treat aspects of OUD across all areas queried, reported decreased perception of barriers to providing MAT, and increased comfort prescribing naloxone, counseling patients, prescribing buprenorphine, and treating opioid withdrawal. A didactic training on MAT was associated with residents reporting improved comfort providing buprenorphine and naloxone. As the wake of morbidity and mortality from both COVID and OUD continue to increase, programs should offer dedicated training on MAT

Discordance in categorization of acute-on-chronic liver failure in the United Network for Organ Sharing database

Studies regarding acute-on-chronic liver failure (ACLF) among liver transplant (LT) candidates from the United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS) database are being used to inform LT policy changes worldwide. We assessed the validity of identifying ACLF in UNOS. We performed stratified random sampling among 3 US LT centers between 2013-2019 to obtain a representative patient sample across ACLF grades. We compared the concordance of ACLF classification by UNOS vs. blinded manual chart review, according to EASL-CLIF. Among 481 sampled LT registrants, 250 (52%) had no ACLF, 75 (16%) had ACLF grade 1, 79 (16%) had ACLF grade 2, and 77 (16%) had ACLF grade 3 per UNOS categorization. Concordance of ACLF grade by UNOS vs. chart review was: 72%, 64%, 56%, and 64% for no ACLF, grade 1, grade 2, and grade 3, respectively, with an overall Cohen’s kappa coefficient of 0.48 (95% CI 0.42–0.54). Absence of acute decompensation was the most common reason for overestimation, and discordant brain and respiratory failure categorization were the most common reasons for underestimation of ACLF by UNOS. In this retrospective multi-center study, ACLF categorization by UNOS showed weak agreement with manual chart review. These findings are informative for ongoing allocation policy discussions, highlight the importance of prospective studies regarding ACLF in LT, and should encourage UNOS reform. Acute-on-chronic-liver-failure (ACLF) is a specific and common form of liver failure associated with high death rates. Studies have been published using the United States transplant registry (UNOS) to identify and describe outcomes of transplant candidates and recipients with ACLF, and these data are driving policy changes for transplant allocation around the world, but nobody has shown whether these data are reliable. We found that UNOS was not categorizing ACLF in concordance or accurately when compared to chart review, which shows the need for UNOS reform and non-UNOS studies to appropriately inform policies regarding the transplantation of patients with ACLF. [Display omitted] •UNOS studies on ACLF are informing global transplant allocation policies, but the validity of these data is unknown.•We found that ACLF identified by UNOS is only weakly concordant with chart review.•Classification of acute decompensation and brain/respiratory failures are common sources of discordance.•These data highlight the importance of prospective studies regarding ACLF in LT and should encourage UNOS reform

High-dose buprenorphine induction in the emergency department for treatment of opioid use disorder.

Question: Is high-dose (>12 mg) buprenorphine induction safe and well tolerated in patients with untreated opioid use disorder who present to the emergency department? Findings: In this case series of 579 cases, 54 clinicians followed a high-dose buprenorphine (monoproduct) protocol. There were no documented episodes of respiratory depression or excessive sedation, and precipitated withdrawal was rare (0.8% of cases) and was not associated with dosing. Meaning: These findings suggest that high-dose buprenorphine induction, adopted by multiple clinicians in a single-site, urban emergency department, was safe and well tolerated in patients with untreated opioid use disorder