(202) Estimates of New Chronic Opioid Use following Burn Injury

Abstract

Nearly 500,000 burn injuries occur annually in the US, and ∼40,000 individuals experience major thermal burn injury (MThBI) requiring hospitalization. Burn injury is capable of causing ongoing, severe pain, however the incidence of persistent opioid use to treat chronic post-burn injury pain has not been assessed. We estimated the incidence of new chronic opioid use among burn survivors using two methods. First, we performed a retrospective study using the Truven MarketScan® claims 1% database from 2001-2016 and calculated persistent opioid use (receipt of ≥1 prescription 90-180 days following MThBI) among individuals who were opioid naive prior to MThBI. Second, we performed a prospective, observational cohort study of hospitalized MThBI survivors whose burn was severe enough to warrant tissue autografting and calculated the proportion of individuals who self-reported use of opioid analgesics 6 months following injury. Among opioid naive individuals in the retrospective claims dataset, 39% (21/54) required new chronic opioid use following an admission for burn injury. In the prospective study, 21% (20/96) required chronic pain management with opioid analgesics 6 months following burn injury. Together these data indicate that chronic opioid use is common among opioid-naive MThBI survivors. New treatments to reduce chronic pain and persistent opioid use in this population are urgently needed.