SynthesisJAMA surgery2017
Prescription Opioid Analgesics Commonly Unused After Surgery: A Systematic Review.
Synthesis in JAMA surgery, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to 5 registered trials, which are not on this map. Cited by 332 papers, 6 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
A Comparison of the Post-cesarean Section Analgesic Effects of Neuraxial Duramorph vs. Bilateral Transverse Abdominal Plane Block With Combined Bupivacaine/Liposomal Bupivacaine (Exparel)
Disposal Interventions for Safe Prescription Opioid Surplus Elimination: The DISPOSE Trial
Cluster Randomized Trial of a Mailed At-home Kit on Disposal of Unused Opioids Following Surgery
Efficiency And Quality In Post-Surgical Pain Therapy After Discharge
SAVE Trial: SAfe Opioid Use Video Education
Who cites it
332 citing papers in PubMed, 6 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 848 citations in OpenAlex.
- Enhanced recovery after surgery in robot-assisted renal surgery: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Journal of robotic surgery · 2026Pooled it
- Effectiveness of interventions designed to increase safe medicine disposal: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomised trials.Systematic reviews · 2025Pooled it
- Opioid Consumption After Upper Extremity Surgery: A Systematic Review.Hand (New York, N.Y.) · 2024Pooled it
- Effectiveness of Intravenous Non-Opioid Analgesics for Postoperative Pain Management of in Patients Undergoing Hip Surgery: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.Medicina (Kaunas, Lithuania) · 2023Pooled it
- CDC Clinical Practice Guideline for Prescribing Opioids for Pain - United States, 2022.MMWR. Recommendations and reports : Morbidity and mortality weekly report. Recommendations and reports · 2022Guideline
- Efficacy and Safety of Transcutaneous Electrical Acupoint Stimulation for Postoperative Pain: A Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials.Pain research & management · 2022Pooled it
- Opioid Analgesia Following Pediatric Adenotonsillectomy: A Randomized Clinical Trial.Otolaryngology--head and neck surgery : official journal of American Academy of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery · 2025Trial
- A qualitative analysis on the implementation of a nudge intervention to reduce post-surgical opioid prescribing.BMC health services research · 2025Trial
- Decreasing Post-Operative Narcotic Usage Following Total Knee Arthroplasty Requires More than Simple Education: A Blinded Randomized Controlled Trial.The Orthopedic clinics of North America · 2023Trial
- Best Practice Alerts Informed by Inpatient Opioid Intake to Reduce Opioid Prescribing after Surgery (PRIOR): A Cluster Randomized Multiple Crossover Trial.Anesthesiology · 2023Trial
- HTX-011 in Combination with Multimodal Analgesic Regimen Minimized Severe Pain and Opioid Use after Total Knee Arthroplasty in an Open-Label Study.The journal of knee surgery · 2023Trial
- Reducing Opioid Analgesic Prescribing in Dentistry Through Prescribing Defaults: A Cluster-Randomized Controlled Trial.Pain medicine (Malden, Mass.) · 2023Trial
- Feasibility of Prospectively Comparing Opioid Analgesia With Opioid-Free Analgesia After Outpatient General Surgery: A Pilot Randomized Clinical Trial.JAMA network open · 2022Trial
- Effect of Mailing an At-home Disposal Kit on Unused Opioid Disposal After Surgery: A Randomized Clinical Trial.JAMA network open · 2022Trial
- Ultrasound-guided single popliteal sciatic nerve block is an effective postoperative analgesia strategy for calcaneal fracture: a randomized clinical trial.BMC musculoskeletal disorders · 2021Trial
- Storage and Disposal of Unused Prescription Opioids for Acute Pain After Emergency Department Discharge.JAMA network open · 2026Article
- Clinical Decision Support to Reduce Opioid Prescribing at Discharge for Inpatients Undergoing Surgery (LESS Study): An Interrupted Time Series Analysis.Anesthesiology · 2026Article
- Opioid-sparing multimodal pain regimen in combination with intraoperative transversus abdominis plane block reduces opioid use after laparoscopic paraesophageal hernia repair.Surgical endoscopy · 2026Article
- Opioid Use and Pain Resolution for Acute Pain Among Opioid-Naive Patients.JAMA network open · 2026Article
- Cultural variation in postoperative care after ankle fracture fixation: a binational matched cohort study.European journal of orthopaedic surgery & traumatology : orthopedie traumatologie · 2026Observational
272 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
importancePrescription opioid analgesics play an important role in the treatment of postoperative pain; however, unused opioids may be diverted for nonmedical use and contribute to opioid-related injuries and deaths.
objectiveTo quantify how commonly postoperative prescription opioids are unused, why they remain unused, and what practices are followed regarding their storage and disposal. EVIDENCE REVIEW: MEDLINE, EMBASE, and Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials were searched from database inception to October 18, 2016, for studies describing opioid oversupply for adults after a surgical procedure. The primary outcome-opioid oversupply-was defined as the number of patients with either filled but unused opioid prescriptions or unfilled opioid prescriptions. Two reviewers independently screened studies for inclusion, extracted data, and assessed the study quality.
findingsSix eligible studies reported on a total of 810 unique patients (range, 30-250 patients) who underwent 7 different types of surgical procedures. Across the 6 studies, 67% to 92% of patients reported unused opioids. Of all the opioid tablets obtained by surgical patients, 42% to 71% went unused. Most patients stopped or used no opioids owing to adequate pain control, and 16% to 29% of patients reported opioid-induced adverse effects. In 2 studies examining storage safety, 73% to 77% of patients reported that their prescription opioids were not stored in locked containers. All studies reported low rates of anticipated or actual disposal, but no study reported US Food and Drug Administration-recommended disposal methods in more than 9% of patients. CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE: Postoperative prescription opioids often go unused, unlocked, and undisposed, suggesting an important reservoir of opioids contributing to nonmedical use of these products, which could cause injuries or even deaths.
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Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.