American College of Surgeons Launches Education Program on Opioids and Surgery: Use, Abuse, and Alternatives
November 22 2016 - 07:30AM
The American College of Surgeons (ACS) today announced a new
multifaceted initiative to improve the knowledge and management of
pain in surgical patients with a focus on opioid risk and
non-opioid alternatives.
With an educational grant from Pacira Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
(Pacira), ACS will develop Opioids and Surgery: Use, Abuse and
Alternatives (Opioids and Surgery) professional and patient
education materials. Evidence-based education for the surgical
patient will support informed choice and meet the guidelines for
health literacy, informed consent, and surgical patient safety.
Surgeons and surgical practitioners will have access to a
comprehensive library of resources specific to opioids and the
surgical patient including managing pain expectations, non-opioid
options and screening programs. Team training focused on pain
management, discharge and transition management will be a critical
component of the program.
In 2014, more people died from drug overdoses than in any year
on record. The majority of drug overdose deaths (more than six out
of ten) involve an opioid, according to the Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention (CDC). The CDC also reports that since 1999
the number of overdose deaths involving opioids, including
prescription opioid pain relievers and heroin, nearly
quadrupled1.
Opioids remain the mainstay of surgical pain management within
the United States, with 110 million operations performed each year
in which patients are prescribed opioids for perioperative pain.
Within that group, 1 in 15 individuals will become a long-term
user2. In addition to the risks of long-term use, recent studies
also show opioid related adverse drug events occur in 11 percent of
patients with significant risk factors including cardiac
arrhythmias, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, prior opioid
use, diverticulitis, and ulcerative colitis. Patients with multiple
risk factors and an opioid related adverse event were more likely
to experience higher overall health care costs, prolonged length of
hospital stay and higher 30-day hospital readmission rates3.
ACS has identified a critical gap in knowledge, practice and
communications about surgical perioperative pain management,
specifically a lack of education and resources aimed at the use of
opioids in individuals undergoing surgery. Annually, there are 25
million inpatient and 35 million outpatient surgical procedures
performed in the United States. While opioids are the first line of
choice for providing analgesia postoperatively, such use is often
accompanied by adverse drug events including mortality.
“The surgical community has a unique opportunity to highlight
the impact of the consequences of opioid use and to create
resources for use by surgical professionals and patients. There is
an increased national awareness of opioid use and addiction and
resources have been developed for professional training. However,
specific education is not readily available for patients and their
families, and new resources are needed for surgical professionals
in their care of patients,” said ACS Division of Education’s
Founding Director Ajit K. Sachdeva, MD, FACS, FRCSC.
The Opioids and Surgery program will support comprehensive
training for surgical professionals, including identification of
high-risk patients, management of opioid-addicted patients,
non-opioid options, and discharge training and monitoring of
patients. Also included is a patient education program to support
informed choice and decision quality. This program will provide
surgical professionals with evidence-based data that meets the
guidelines for health literacy, informed consent and surgical
safety, in a format that can be printed or emailed to the patient
and included in their electronic health records. The resulting
educational materials will be distributed nationally with the
support of the Pacira educational grant.
“Pacira is proud to partner with the American College of
Surgeons on the development of comprehensive clinician and patient
education regarding the importance of reducing avoidable exposure
to opioids, their side effects, and their long-term health risks.
Research continues to elucidate a connection between postsurgical
opioid prescribing and the potential for long-term use, addiction
and dependence, so we are pleased to contribute to advancing the
understanding and awareness of available non-opioid options, such
as EXPAREL, and to ultimately improving patient care,” said Dave
Stack, CEO and Chairman of Pacira.
“This initiative provides us with an innovative opportunity to
address a growing patient safety problem in the United States. The
ACS mission is to provide optimal surgical patient care and with
grant funding from Pacira, we can now provide additional resources
for better management of perioperative pain. This program will
build on the success of our diverse catalog of patient education
and skills training resources,” ACS Executive Director David B.
Hoyt, MD, FACS, said.
ACS anticipates the Opioids and Surgery program will demonstrate
the comparative benefit and reduction of harm with the use of a
guided pain management program. The long-term goal is to develop a
national standard for best intervention methods for pain control
for both inpatient and outpatient procedures and through optimal
communication and follow-up with the primary care provider.
Adherence to guidelines and providing engaging visual methods to
communicate care needed for recovery is an effective way to improve
quality, reduce variation in care and improve financial
performance.
________________________ 1 Opioid Painkiller Prescribing. Center
for Disease Control and Prevention. Available at:
http://www.cdc.gov/vitalsigns/opioid-prescribing/. Accessed October
28, 2016.
2 Alam, A., Gomes, T., & Zheng, H. Long-term analgesic use
after low-risk surgery: a retrospective cohort study. Arch Intern
Med. 2012;172:425-430.
3 Minkowitz, H.S., Gruschkus, S., & Raju, A. Adverse drug
events among patients receiving post-surgical opioids in a large
health system: risk factors and outcomes. Am J Health Syst Pharm.
2014;71:1556-65.
About the American College of SurgeonsThe
American College of Surgeons is a scientific and educational
organization of surgeons that was founded in 1913 to raise the
standards of surgical practice and to improve the care of the
surgical patient. The College is dedicated to the ethical and
competent practice of surgery. Its achievements have significantly
influenced the course of scientific surgery in America and have
established it as an important advocate for all surgical patients.
The College has more than 80,000 members and is the largest
organization of surgeons in the world. The American College of
Surgeons Foundation was established in 2005 to provide
philanthropic support for the research, education, and patient
safety programs of the American College of Surgeons.
About Pacira Pacira Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
(NASDAQ:PCRX) is a specialty pharmaceutical company focused on the
clinical and commercial development of new products that meet the
needs of acute care practitioners and their patients. The company’s
flagship product, EXPAREL® (bupivacaine liposome injectable
suspension), indicated for single-dose infiltration into the
surgical site to produce postsurgical analgesia, was commercially
launched in the United States in April 2012. EXPAREL and two other
products have successfully utilized DepoFoam®, a unique and
proprietary product delivery technology that encapsulates drugs
without altering their molecular structure, and releases them over
a desired period of time. Additional information about Pacira is
available at www.pacira.com.
Company Contact:
The American College of Surgeons
Sally Garneski, 312-202-5409
Dan Hamilton, 312-202-5328
pressinquiry@facs.org
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