Editorial Commentary: Opioid Sparing Through Patient Education Programs Is the Future for Sports Medicine and Arthroscopic Surgery to Optimize Outcome.

Abstract

Opioid research in sports medicine and arthroscopic surgery has exploded in the last few years. The literature definitively shows that preoperative opioid usage-in so-called opioid exposed, tolerant, and familiar patients-increases postoperative usage, readmission rates, and medical complications, yielding poorer outcome. Strategies to combat the deleterious effects of preoperative opioid use should be used to include ownership and acknowledgment of the problem, adherence to opioid prescribing protocols, and use of a multimodal anesthesia program that can mitigate the adverse effects by limiting abuse and preventing potential poor outcome. Adding patient education programs to change patient modifiable risk factors shows promise while simultaneously optimizing appropriate patient expectations that are linked to increased outcome. Thus, opioid mitigation, sparing, or altogether avoidance through improved education programs and opioid prescribing protocols will likely be the future of sports medicine and arthroscopic surgery to optimize patient outcome.