Bariatric surgery patients who used opiates to control chronic pain before surgery are more likely to increase opiate use after surgery, according to an article published in The Journal of the American Medical Association.
Researchers examined chronic opiate use, defined as 10 or more opiate dispensings over three or more months, or dispensing of 120 days of opiate supply during the year preceding bariatric surgery, both one year before and one year after surgery in approximately 12,000 patients who had undergone bariatric surgery between 2005 and 2009.
Approximately 8 percent of these patients were chronic opioid users.
Almost 80 percent of patients who were chronic opioid users before bariatric surgery continued using opiates to control their pain after the surgery and used more of the drugs after the surgery than preoperatively.
Researchers suggested pain management practices must improve for bariatric surgery patients known to be using opiates to control preoperative pain.
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