Approximately 12% of patients receiving ordinary heart device implants will continue to use opioids

Approximately 12% of patients have received implantable heart devices such as pacemakers or defibrillators, and are prescribed opioids after surgery.

Using data from the National Insurance Claims Database of adult patients who underwent cardiac implant surgery from 2004 to 2018, researchers at the University of Pennsylvania found that out of a sample of 143,400 patients, 15,316 patients filled in within two weeks of surgery Received an opioid prescription

"Even small amounts of oxycodone can initiate the addiction process," said senior author David S.

Since opioids include a variety of drugs, including oral hydrocodone, oxycodone, hydromorphone, tramadol, codeine, and other types of drugs, the researchers used the initial postoperative opioid script (prescribed dose multiplied by The total number of tablets) was converted into oral morphine equivalents for standardized measurement

Since the amount of such prescriptions is usually lower than that of more invasive heart surgeries such as open heart surgery, Frankel said it is important for doctors to understand the risk of opioid dependence, even for smaller surgeries, overdose of opioids.

In addition to these intervention care teams, legislators and the health care system, including the University of Pennsylvania Medicine, are taking various measures to reduce the prescription of opioids, such as restricting the supply of prescriptions to a certain number of days or using automated text messaging systems to check subjects for pain and opioids in patients.

Frankel said: "We are still in a very fatal health crisis of opioid overdose.