Impact of the Opioid Epidemic

Opioid-Associated Nervous System Injuries

With the rise of the opioid epidemic, the practicing neurologist must recognize the patterns of a growing number of opioid-associated neurological injuries. This is in addition to the classic toxidrome of miosis, altered mental status, and respiratory depression, which must never be overlooked, as it is reversible and potentially lifesaving. Several other idiosyncratic syndromes due to opioid-related nervous system insults are defined by their characteristic imaging findings and portend variable functional recovery. Opioid toxicity can not only lead to brain injury, but also spinal cord and, rarely, peripheral nerve injury. As several newer synthetic opioids are undetectable by most assays, a low threshold to suspect opioid exposure must be maintained.

Opioid prescribing practices in breast oncologic surgery-A retrospective cohort study

BACKGROUND

In breast oncologic surgery, 75% of patients receive a postoperative opioid prescription at discharge, and 10%-20% will develop persistent opioid use. To inform future institutional guidelines, the objective of this study was to determine baseline opioid prescribing patterns in a single high-volume, referral-based breast center. We hypothesized that opioid prescribing practices varied between procedures and operating surgeons.

METHODS

A retrospective analysis of all women undergoing breast cancer surgery between January and December 2019. Opioid prescriptions at discharge were converted to morphine milligram equivalents (MME). The primary outcome of interest was MME prescribed at discharge. Multiple linear regression was used to identify factors independently associated with MME prescribed.

RESULTS

392 patients met inclusion criteria; 68.3% underwent partial mastectomy. Median age was 61 (interquartile range [IQR] 51-70). Median MME prescribed at discharge was 112.5 (IQR 75-150); 83.9% of patients were prescribed co-analgesia. The prescriber was a trainee in 37.7% of cases. 15 patients (3.8%) required opioid renewal. On multivariate analysis, axillary procedure was associated with increased MME (ß = 17, 95% CI 5.5-28 and ß = 32, 95% CI 17-47, for sentinel node and axillary dissection, respectively). However, the factor with the greatest impact on MME was operating surgeon (ß = 72, 95% CI 58-87). Residents prescribed less MME compared to attending surgeons (ß = 11, 95% CI -22; -0.06).

CONCLUSION

In a tertiary care center, the operating surgeon had the greatest influence on opioid prescribing practices, and trainees tended to prescribe less MME. These findings support the need for a standardized approach to optimize prescribing and reduce opioid-related harms after oncologic breast surgery.

The impact of civil commitment laws for substance use disorder on opioid overdose deaths

Objective

Our study analyzed the impact of civil commitment (CC) laws for substance use disorder (SUD) on opioid overdose death rates (OODR) in the U.S. from 2010-21.

Methods

We used a retrospective study design using the CDC Wide-ranging Online Data for Epidemiologic Research (WONDER) dataset to analyze overdose death rates from any opioid during 2010-21 using ICD-10 codes. We used t-tests and two-way ANOVA to compare the OODR between the U.S. states with the law as compared to those without by using GraphPad Prism 10.0.

Results

We found no significant difference in the annual mean age-adjusted OODR from 2010-21 between U.S. states with and without CC SUD laws. During the pre-COVID era (2010-19), the presence or absence of CC SUD law had no difference in age-adjusted OODR. However, in the post-COVID era (2020-21), there was a significant increase in OODR in states with a CC SUD law compared to states without the law (p = 0.032). We also found that OODR increased at a faster rate post-COVID among both the states with CC SUD laws (p < 0.001) and the states without the law (p = 0.019).

Conclusion

We found higher age-adjusted OODR in states with a CC SUD law which could be due to the laws being enacted in response to the opioid crisis or physicians' opposition to or unawareness of the law's existence leading to underutilization. Recent enactment of CC SUD law(s), a lack of a central database for recording relapse rates, and disparities in opioid overdose rate reductions uncovers multiple variables potentially influencing OODR. Thus, further investigation is needed to analyze the factors influencing OODRs and long-term effects of the CC SUD laws.

Public Health Informatics and the Perioperative Physician: Looking to the Future

The role of informatics in public health has increased over the past few decades, and the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has underscored the critical importance of aggregated, multicenter, high-quality, near-real-time data to inform decision-making by physicians, hospital systems, and governments. Given the impact of the pandemic on perioperative and critical care services (eg, elective procedure delays; information sharing related to interventions in critically ill patients; regional bed-management under crisis conditions), anesthesiologists must recognize and advocate for improved informatic frameworks in their local environments. Most anesthesiologists receive little formal training in public health informatics (PHI) during clinical residency or through continuing medical education. The COVID-19 pandemic demonstrated that this knowledge gap represents a missed opportunity for our specialty to participate in informatics-related, public health-oriented clinical care and policy decision-making. This article briefly outlines the background of PHI, its relevance to perioperative care, and conceives intersections with PHI that could evolve over the next quarter century.

Hepatitis C virus-positive donors in HCV-negative recipients in liver transplantation: Is it possible in Mexico?

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection is a worldwide public health problem associated with significant morbidity and mortality. In the context of liver transplantation, the demand for organs continues to exceed the supply, prompting the consideration of using organs from HCV-positive donors in HCV-negative recipients. The introduction of direct-acting antivirals (DAAs), which have demonstrated great efficacy in eradicating the virus, has made transplantation of organs from donors with HCV infection possible. The present article provides a brief review of the current evidence on the use of organs from HCV-infected patients.

The Synthetic Opioid Fentanyl Increases HIV Replication and Chemokine Co-Receptor Expression in Lymphocyte Cell Lines

BACKGROUND

In the United States, the illicit use of synthetic opioids such as fentanyl has led to a serious public health crisis. Synthetic opioids are known to enhance viral replication and to suppress immunologic responses, but their effects on HIV pathogenesis remain unclear. Thus, we examined the impact of fentanyl on HIV-susceptible and HIV-infected cell types.

METHODS

TZM-bl and HIV-infected lymphocyte cells were incubated with fentanyl at varying concentrations. Expression levels of the CXCR4 and CCR5 chemokine receptors and HIV p24 antigen were quantified with ELISA. HIV proviral DNA was quantified using SYBR RT-PCR. Cell viability was detected with the MTT assay. RNAseq was performed to characterize cellular gene regulation in the presence of fentanyl.

RESULTS

Fentanyl enhanced expression of both chemokine receptor levels in a dose-dependent manner in HIV-susceptible and infected cell lines. Similarly, fentanyl induced viral expression in HIV-exposed TZM-bl cells and in HIV-infected lymphocyte cell lines. Multiple genes associated with apoptosis, antiviral/interferon response, chemokine signaling, and NFκB signaling were differentially regulated.

CONCLUSIONS

Synthetic opioid fentanyl impacts HIV replication and chemokine co-receptor expression. Increased virus levels suggest that opioid use may increase the likelihood of transmission and accelerate disease progression.

Atypical Fentanyl Transdermal Patch Consumption and Fatalities: Case Report and Literature Review

Fentanyl is a synthetic L-opioid receptor agonist, approximately 100 times more potent than morphine, that is experiencing an upward trend in the field of abuse. Fentanyl patches' abusive consumption can occur either by transdermal absorption or through other atypical and ingenious routes. In the present case, a 29-year-old man with a history of illicit drug use was found dead in a suburban neighborhood of an Italian city. At autopsy, lungs appeared increased in weight and showed minute subpleural hemorrhages. Airways contained abundant reddish foamy material; in addition, a fentanyl patch protective film was found inside the left main bronchus. Toxicological analysis revealed the presence of morphine, fentanyl, BEG and ethyl alcohol in peripheric blood; 6-MAM was also revealed in urine. Findings collected during post-mortem investigations allowed us to identify fentanyl consumption as the cause of death. Fentanyl consumption presumably took place by chewing of a transdermal patch, with subsequent aspiration of the protective film. The pathophysiology of death can be identified as combined respiratory failure-both central suppression and a fentanyl-induced increase in muscular stiffness; a further minor contribution may be identified in the mechanical airflow obstruction caused by the presence of the protective film at the bronchial level.

Comparison of hospital claims and poison center data to evaluate health impact of opioids, cannabis and synthetic cannabinoids

INTRODUCTION

Over the past 10 years, opioids and cannabis have garnered significant attention due to misuse and legalization trends. Different datasets and surveillance mechanisms can lead to different conclusions the due to a variety of factors. The primary objective of this study was to compare and describe trends of opioid, cannabis, and synthetic cannabinoid-related healthcare encounters and poison center (PC) cases in Colorado, a state that has legalized cannabis.

METHODS

This was a retrospective study comparing hospital claims data (Colorado Hospital Association (CHA)) and poison center cases to describe opioid, cannabis and synthetic cannabinoid-related healthcare encounters and exposures in Colorado from 2013 to 2017 using related genetic codes and International Statistical Classification of Disease codes.

RESULTS

Both datasets observed increases in cannabis related encounters and exposures after recreational cannabis legalization in 2014. CHA reported an increase for cannabis-related ER visits from 14,109 in 2013 to 18,118 in 2017 while PC noted a 74.4% increase in cannabis-related cases (125 to 218). CHA inpatient visits associated with cannabis also increased (8311 in 2013 to 14,659 in 2017). On the other hand, Opioid-related exposures to the PC fell (1092 in 2013 to 971 in 2017) while both Opioid-related ER visits (8580 in 2013 to 12,928 in 2017) and inpatient visits in CHA increased (9084 in 2013 to 13,205).

CONCLUSIONS

This study demonstrates the differences in surveillance methodology for concurrent drug abuse epidemics using hospital claims and PC data. Both systems provide incomplete reports, but in combination can provide a more complete picture.

Original enantioseparation of illicit fentanyls with cellulose-based chiral stationary phases under polar-ionic conditions

Fentanyl analogues used in therapy and a range of highly potent non-pharmaceutical fentanyl derivatives are subject to international control, as the latter are increasingly being synthesized illicitly and sold as 'synthetic heroin', or mixed with heroin. A significant number of hospitalizations and deaths have been reported in the EU and USA following the use of illicitly synthesized fentanyl derivatives. It has been unequivocally demonstrated that the enantiomers of fentanyl derivatives exhibit different pharmaco-toxicological profiles, which makes crucial to avail of suitable analytical methods enabling investigations at a "stereochemical level". Chromatographic methods useful to discriminate the enantioseparation of fentanyls and their derivatives are still missing in the literature. This is the first study in which the enantioseparation of four fentanyl derivatives, that is, (±)-trans-3-methyl norfentanyl, (±)-cis-3-methyl norfentanyl, β-hydroxyfentanyl, and β-hydroxythiofentanyl, has been obtained under polar-ionic conditions. Indeed, the use of ACN-based mobile phases with minor amounts of either 2-propanol or ethanol (plus diethylamine and formic acid as ionic additives) allowed obtaining enantioseparation and enantioresolution factors up to 1.83 and 7.02, respectively. For the study, the two chiral stationary phases cellulose tris(3-chloro-4-methylphenylcarbamate) and cellulose tris(4-chloro-3-methylphenylcarbamate) were used, displaying a remarkably different performance towards the enantioseparation of (±)-cis-3-methyl norfentanyl. Chiral LC analyses with a high-resolution mass spectrometry detector were also carried out in order to confirm the obtained data and demonstrate the suitability and compatibility of the optimized mobile phases with mass spectrometric systems.