Use of gabapentin and pregabalin for hand surgery patients

Evidenced-Based Opioid Prescribing Recommendations Following Hand and Upper-Extremity Surgery

The United States’ opioid epidemic has taken an immense toll over the past 2 decades when assessed by morbidities, mortalities, and economic costs. Prescription opioids are a substantial contribution to this public health emergency, and it is critical for health care providers to practice good analgesic stewardship. Interventions have effectively curtailed opioid overuse, including prescription drug monitoring programs, educational initiatives, and multimodal analgesia strategies. Surgeons, particularly hand surgeons or those who perform musculoskeletal procedures, have been implicated as high-volume opioid prescribers. Guidelines for appropriate opioid dosing and analgesic management strategies after common hand and upper-extremity surgeries are sparse and offer an area for meaningful improvement. We sought to generate comprehensive, evidence-based recommendations for postoperative analgesia regimens for common hand and upper-extremity procedures.

Complete Abolition of Opioid Prescribing in an Upper Extremity Surgical Practice

BACKGROUND

Prescription opioids threaten potential addiction, diversion, and death. Nonopioid regimens have demonstrated similar efficacy for select upper extremity postoperative patients.

METHODS

After adopting a practice policy completely abolishing opioid prescriptions, data were collected on all consecutive surgical cases for the next 6 months, without exclusion. There were 800 cases, 61% male and 39% female, with a mean age of 45. Seventy patients (9%) reported already using prescription medications employed in multimodality regimens; no instruction was given to alter consumption. Patients were divided into 5 groups based on the type of surgery: elective soft tissue (24%), trauma wound management (19%), soft tissue structural repairs (9%), hand fracture/bone procedures (34%), and wrist to elbow fracture/bone procedures (14%). Each group was compared directly to each other group with a 2-tailed t-test, P < .05.

RESULTS

Patients reported achieving pain control without the need for further medication assistance by a mean of postoperative day 2.7. Times to pain control by group were as follows: 1.5, 3.1, 2.7, 2.9, and 3.6 days respectively. Mean postoperative daily pain scores (using a 10-point visual analog scale) for days 1 to 5 were as follows: 2.8, 2.1, 1.5, 1.0, and 0.6, respectively, with a sum of 8.0. During the 6-month tracking period, the practice only received 4 calls from patients with questions about pain control (0.5% of cases).

CONCLUSIONS

Patients achieved good immediate pain control without opioids and reported rapidly declining pain levels over the next several days to the point of no longer requiring medication.

TYPE OF STUDY/LEVEL OF EVIDENCE

Prospective cohort case series, therapeutic; Level IV.

Enrollment in Treatment at a Specialized Pain Management Clinic at a Tertiary Referral Center after Surgery for Ulnar Nerve Compression: Patient Characteristics and Outcome

Purpose

To study patients who enroll in treatment at a specialized pain management clinic at a tertiary referral center following ulnar nerve decompression.

Methods

Data from medical charts and postoperative questionnaires were collected for all patients after surgery for ulnar nerve compression at the elbow from 2011 to 2014 (n = 173) at a tertiary referral center. Differences in characteristics between patients who enrolled in treatment at the pain management clinic (study group, n = 26) and the rest of the patients (reference group, n = 147) were analyzed. The study group was further evaluated using questionnaires from the Swedish Quality Registry for Pain Rehabilitation (SQRP) and regarding outcome of pain treatment.

Results

The study group was characterized by prior pain conditions, earlier contact with a pain management clinic, and high degrees of kinesiophobia, depression/anxiety, low quality of life, and low life satisfaction. These patients had significantly higher postoperative Disabilities of the Arm, Shoulder, and Hand (DASH) scores, were significantly younger, and had bilateral surgery significantly more often than the reference group. For patients with unilateral surgery, simple decompression was significantly more common in the reference group. The most common treatments at the clinic were antidepressants and anticonvulsants for neurogenic pain. In 5 of 26 patients, pain relief, or pain reduction was the documented reason for discharge.

Conclusions

Pain is a relevant outcome measure for ulnar nerve decompression among complicated cases at a referral center. Severe postoperative pain is connected to higher disability, reduced life satisfaction, and overall low health status. This study maps out characteristics of patients who postoperatively enroll in treatment at a specialized pain management clinic following ulnar nerve decompression. Further studies are needed to define predictive factors for such pain.

Type of study/level of evidence

Prognostic III.

Opioid-Sparing Pain Management in Upper Extremity Surgery: Part 2: Surgeon as Prescriber

A multimodal pain management strategy combines complementary medications and techniques, targeting unique pathways, to improve overall analgesic effect and reduce opioid requirements. In this 2-part review, we examine the literature identifying nonopioid analgesic modalities and their targets in the pain pathway as well as anesthetic techniques found to be opioid sparing in the practice of upper extremity surgery. Part 1 focused on operative anesthesia and analgesia. In part 2, we discuss the nonopioid options available after surgery and explore areas for future investigation specific to upper extremity surgery.

Evaluation and Management of Sleep Disorders in the Hand Surgery Patient

Despite posing a significant public health threat, sleep disorders remain poorly understood and often underdiagnosed and mismanaged. Although sleep disorders are seemingly unrelated, hand surgeons should be mindful of these because numerous conditions of the upper extremity have known associations with sleep disturbances that can adversely affect patient function and satisfaction. In addition, patients with sleep disorders are at significantly higher risk for severe, even life-threatening medical comorbidities, further amplifying the role of hand surgeons in the recognition of this condition.

Evaluation of postoperative pregabalin for attenuation of postoperative shoulder pain after thoracotomy in patients with lung cancer, a preliminary result

OBJECTIVE

Thirty-one to 97% of patients who undergo thoracotomy for lung cancer experience ipsilateral shoulder pain, marring the otherwise excellent relief provided by thoracic epidural analgesia. The aim of this study was to test whether the addition of pregabalin to the treatment for shoulder pain would provide a significant benefit.

METHODS

Twenty patients undergoing thoracic surgery for lung cancer were enrolled in the control group between May 2012 and December 2012, and 20 patients were enrolled in the pregabalin group between January 2013 and July 2013, consecutively. All patients had standard pre- and intraoperative care. Patients received pregabalin 150 mg po POD 1 and then non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) po 2 h later (pregabalin group), or they received only NSAIDs po at exactly the same times (control group). Pain severity was then measured using a 100-mm visual analog scale (VAS) scoring system.

RESULTS

The VAS scores indicated that patients in the pregabalin group had significantly less shoulder pain on postoperative day (POD) 2 than those in the control group (control: 27.9 ± 28.1 vs. pregabalin: 11.8 ± 14.4; p = 0.030). No differences in pain were observed between the two groups on other POD. There were significant differences on only POD 2 in the patients with shoulder pain immediately after surgery. Three of the pregabalin-treated patients showed mild somnolence.

CONCLUSIONS

Postoperative administration of pregabalin provided significant relief of postoperative shoulder pain during earlier POD after thoracic surgery for lung cancer when received multimodal analgesia in combination with NSAIDs.