Team Approach: Multimodal Perioperative Pain Management in Upper-Extremity Surgery: Combating the Opioid Epidemic.

Abstract

* Rates of opioid use and abuse continue to rise in the United States, as do opioid-related deaths. Many patients who misuse opioids receive their first exposure in the perioperative setting.* Postoperative opioid use reduction in patients who have undergone an upper-extremity procedure can be difficult secondary to the often-painful nature of orthopaedic procedures. Postoperative pain can prevent timely discharge from hospitals and is a major cause for emergency medicine visits following outpatient upper-extremity surgical procedures.* Utilization of a multidisciplinary, multimodal, home-going continuous peripheral nerve block catheter protocol may be able to comfortably allow patients to recover in an outpatient setting after an upper-extremity surgical procedure, with a diminished opioid requirement.