Opioid-Related Adverse Event Risk Increased With Modified-Release Opioids

TUESDAY, July 11, 2023 (HealthDay News) -- For patients undergoing total hip or knee arthroplasty, modified-release opioid use in the acute postoperative period is associated with an increased risk for opioid-related adverse events compared with immediate-release opioid only, according to a study published online June 26 in Anesthesia.

Shania Liu, from the University of Sydney School of Pharmacy, and colleagues examined the impact of modified-release opioid use compared to immediate-release opioid use on the incidence of opioid-related adverse events among adult inpatients following total hip or knee arthroplasty. Data were obtained from three tertiary metropolitan hospitals in Australia for total hip and knee arthroplasty inpatients receiving an opioid analgesic for postoperative analgesia. Patients who received modified-release opioids, with or without immediate-release opioids, were matched to those receiving immediate-release opioids only in a 1:1 ratio (347 patients in each group) using nearest-neighbor propensity score matching.

The researchers found that the incidence of opioid-related adverse events was higher overall for patients given modified-release opioids compared with those given immediate-release opioids only (20.5 versus 12.7 percent, respectively).

"This study adds to the increasing body of evidence that modified-release opioids do not provide benefits over immediate-release opioids, and supports the existing advice that modified-release opioids should be avoided in the perioperative period," the authors write.

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