Impact of opioid-free analgesia on pain severity and patient satisfaction after discharge from surgery: multispecialty, prospective cohort study in 25 countries

Background: Balancing opioid stewardship and the need for adequate analgesia following discharge after surgery is challenging. This study aimed to compare the outcomes for patients discharged with opioid versus opioid-free analgesia after common surgical procedures.Methods: This international, multicentre, prospective cohort study collected data from patients undergoing common acute and elective general surgical, urological, gynaecological, and orthopaedic procedures. The primary outcomes were patient-reported time in severe pain measured on a numerical analogue scale from 0 to 100% and patient-reported satisfaction with pain relief during the first week following discharge. Data were collected by in-hospital chart review and patient telephone interview 1 week after discharge.Results: The study recruited 4273 patients from 144 centres in 25 countries; 1311 patients (30.7%) were prescribed opioid analgesia at discharge. Patients reported being in severe pain for 10 (i.q.r. 1-30)% of the first week after discharge and rated satisfaction with analgesia as 90 (i.q.r. 80-100) of 100. After adjustment for confounders, opioid analgesia on discharge was independently associated with increased pain severity (risk ratio 1.52, 95% c.i. 1.31 to 1.76; P < 0.001) and re-presentation to healthcare providers owing to side-effects of medication (OR 2.38, 95% c.i. 1.36 to 4.17; P = 0.004), but not with satisfaction with analgesia (beta coefficient 0.92, 95% c.i. -1.52 to 3.36; P = 0.468) compared with opioid-free analgesia. Although opioid prescribing varied greatly between high-income and low- and middle-income countries, patient-reported outcomes did not.Conclusion: Opioid analgesia prescription on surgical discharge is associated with a higher risk of re-presentation owing to side-effects of medication and increased patient-reported pain, but not with changes in patient-reported satisfaction. Opioid-free discharge analgesia should be adopted routinely

Scoliosis in a Case of Neurofibromatosis Type 1

Neurofibromatosis Type 1 (NF1) is a multisystemic disease, manifesting as abnormalities ofthe nervous tissue, bones, soft tissue, and skin. The entity is dominantly inherited and affects 1in 4000 individuals. Cafe-au-lait spots, peripheral neurofibromas, Lisch nodules and axillaryfreckling are the characteristics of NF1. Bone abnormalities are usually observed in NF1. Scoliosis is a skeletal anomaly reported to beassociated with NF1. We made a diagnosis of NF1 and scoliosis secondary to NF1 in our 26-year-old male case with complaints of low back pain, a mass on his left hip beginning 10 yearsago and growing and with cafe-au-lait spots on his back. We think that, in daily practice, it isimportant to look for cafe-au-lait spots with inspection in the patients coming with the complaintof low back pain and when these spots are observed a diagnosis of NF1 should be suspected.Besides, we wanted to emphasize that scoliosis should be searched in the patients with adiagnosis of NF1 and low back pain

Posttraumatic Splenic Cyst Diagnostic Value Of Mri

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Esophagobronchial fistula and bronchiectasis arising from traction diverticulosis

Bronchoesophageal fistulas associated with traction diverticula are exceptional. We presented a case of traction diverticulum that fistulized to the bronchial tree and resulted in segmentary bronchiectasis. We encountered a successful repair of esophagobronchial fistula communicated to esophageal diverticulum. To our knowledge, there is no reported case of traction diverticulosis causing esophagobronchial fistula and bronchiectasis in a similar fashion