Neck surgery and Pain killers: Does one make the other worse?
Hello!
We see people all the time with neck pain, which is why we are known as the only place to go for Neck pain.
I am going to be straight with you, we are not an enthusiastic fan of surgery or people taking painkillers for a long time.
So, I wondered, is it worse to do both?
Let us look at what the research says.
This study called “Chronic preoperative opioid use is a risk factor for increased complications, resource use, and costs after cervical fusion.”
In English: using opioid painkillers before surgery puts you at risk of more complications after a neck fusion.
Let us look at the findings.
They looked at just over 6600 people who were using opioid pain killers before a neck fusion and found that “Preoperative Chronic Opioid Therapy (COT) was associated with a higher risk of 90-day wound, all-cause 90-day Emergency Department (ED) visits, and pain-related ED visits.”
Chronic opioid therapy means using opioid-based pain killers for a long time.
“. Patients who had preoperative COT were more likely to receive epidural or facet joint injections within 1 year after surgery.”
“These patients were also more likely to undergo a repeat cervical fusion within a year than patients who did not have preoperative COT.”
“Preoperative COT had a higher likelihood of long-term use after surgery.” Long term use here means to continue using opioid-based pain killers for a long time after surgery. Does not sound like surgery will help you get off painkillers.
“Long-term opioid use after surgery was associated with a higher risk of new-onset constipation”
It sounds like combining opioid-based painkillers and surgery is the best way to get the worst complications of both.
Do you want to get off painkillers and avoid surgery?
Jason
