The surgery took place weeks ago. The pain from it is gone. So why are 53% of knee replacement patients and 35% of hip replacement patients still taking opioid painkillers? Some are still taking them six months following their surgery. New research has found that many patients continue to take opioids months after hip or knee surgeries despite the fact that their pain is largely gone.
Researchers studied the cases of 500 patients who underwent knee or hip replacement surgery. They examined the patients on the first, third and sixth month after the surgery to assess the potential devastating effects of the long-term use of prescription opioid painkillers.
They found that 30% of the patients were using addictive opioid painkillers before their surgery. Of this group, 53% of knee replacement patients and 35% of hip replacement patients were still taking opioid painkillers six months after their surgery. This is a major concern, according to the researchers, because the long term effect of use of addictive drugs can have devastating consequences.
Patients who had not been taking opioids prior to their surgery were less likely to report continued use of the drug. Among this group, only 4% of hip replacement patients and 8% of knee patients were still taking narcotics six months after the joint replacement. However, the patients did not reduce their long-term use of opioids even when their pain dramatically decreased following the surgery.
The study authors wrote, “Persistent opioid use after knee or hip replacement surgery may be more common than previously reported. Importantly, continued opioid use is not necessarily related to pain in the affected joint. We hypothesize that the reason patients continue to use opioids may be due to pain in other areas, self-medicating affective distress and therapeutic opioid dependence.”
