Post-surgery opioid prescribing for children and teenagers declined between 2014 and 2019, with a sharp decline seen starting in late 2017, according to a study published in Pediatrics.
Co-author Tori N. Sutherland, MD, MPH, a member of the department of anesthesiology and clinical care at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, discussed the research project in a video abstract accompanying the study online. Sutherland and colleagues had previously noted the steady decline in opioid prescriptions for common dental surgeries after the CDC updated its guidelines for chronic pain in 2016.
“While