Outpatient Surgery Magazine

Queasy Feeling - April 2017 - Subscribe to Outpatient Surgery Magazine

Outpatient Surgery Magazine, providing current information on Surgical Services, Surgical Facility Administration, Outpatient Surgery News and Trends, OR Excellence and more.

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1 2 0 • O U T PA T I E N T S U R G E R Y M A G A Z I N E • A P R I L 2 0 1 7 I t is a stinging indictment by one of healthcare's leading voices: Surgeons have contributed to the nation's opioid epidemic by overprescribing opioids for post-operative pain relief. "Surgeons are unwittingly enablers of addiction, abuse and overdosage," says surgeon, writer and public health researcher Atul A. Gawande, MD, MPH, of Harvard Medical School, in this month's Annals of Surgery (osmag.net/CVjo4H). Dr. Gawande theorizes that surgeons frequently supply patients with a large excess of painkillers so they don't strand them with an insufficient supply of pills for their pain and no straightforward way to get a refill without a written prescription. "We surgeons turn out to be suppliers of Are Surgeons Fueling The Opioid Epidemic? If surgeons are "unwittingly enablers of addiction, abuse and overdosage," how should they manage post-op pain? Daniel Cook | Executive Editor

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