ArticleAnnals of surgery2023
Safety and Distribution of Opioid Prescribing by U.S. Surgeons.
Article in Annals of surgery, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 10 papers.
What it found
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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.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
10 citing papers in PubMed, 18 citations in OpenAlex.
- Peer Comparison or Guideline-Based Feedback and Postsurgery Opioid Prescriptions: A Randomized Clinical Trial.JAMA health forum · 2024Trial
- Trends in Use of Medications for Opioid Use Disorder among Commercially Insured U.S. Surgical Patients, 2016 to 2022.Anesthesiology · 2026Article
- Development and validation of a predictive model for portal-systemic venous invasion grading in borderline resectable pancreatic cancer.World journal of gastroenterology · 2025Article
- Prescription drug monitoring programs and perioperative opioid prescribing and adverse events.Health affairs scholar · 2025Article
- Epidemiology of Opioid Prescribing After Discharge From Surgical Procedures Among Adults.JAMA network open · 2024Article
- Perioperative Opioid-Related Harms: Opportunities to Minimize Risk.Seminars in plastic surgery · 2024Review
- Trajectories of opioid prescribing by general dentists, specialists, and oral and maxillofacial surgeons in the United States, 2015-2019.Journal of the American Dental Association (1939) · 2024Article
- Massachusetts' opioid limit law associated with a reduction in postoperative opioid duration among orthopedic patients.Health affairs scholar · 2023Article
- Opioid Prescribing by US Surgeons, 2016-2022.JAMA network open · 2023Article
- Changes in Surgical Opioid Prescribing and Patient-Reported Outcomes After Implementation of an Insurer Opioid Prescribing Limit.JAMA health forum · 2023Article
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
objectiveTo estimate high-risk prescribing patterns among opioid prescriptions from U.S. surgeons; to characterize the distribution of high-risk prescribing among surgeons.
backgroundNational data on the prevalence of opioid prescribing and high-risk opioid prescribing by U.S. surgeons are lacking.
methodsUsing the IQVIA Prescription Database, which reports dispensing from 92% of U.S. pharmacies, we identified opioid prescriptions from surgeons dispensed in 2019 to patients ages ≥12 years. "High-risk" prescriptions were characterized by: days supplied >7, daily dosage ≥50 oral morphine equivalents (OMEs), opioid-benzodiazepine overlap, and extended-release/long-acting opioid. We determined the proportion of opioid prescriptions, total OMEs, and high-risk prescriptions accounted for by "high-volume surgeons" (those in the ≥95th percentile for prescription counts). We used linear regression to identify characteristics associated with being a high-volume surgeon.
resultsAmong 15,493,018 opioid prescriptions included, 7,036,481 (45.4%) were high-risk. Among 114,610 surgeons, 5753 were in the 95th percentile or above for prescription count, with ≥520 prescriptions dispensed in 2019. High-volume surgeons accounted for 33.5% of opioid prescriptions, 52.8% of total OMEs, and 44.2% of high-risk prescriptions. Among high-volume surgeons, 73.9% were orthopedic surgeons and 60.6% practiced in the South. Older age, male sex, specialty, region, and lack of affiliation with academic institutions or health systems were correlated with high-risk prescribing.
conclusionsThe top 5% of surgeons account for 33.5% of opioid prescriptions and 45.4% of high-risk prescriptions. Quality improvement initiatives targeting these surgeons may have the greatest yield given their outsized role in high-risk prescribing.
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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.