ArticleJSES international2025
United States opioid prescribing trends after shoulder surgery and their correlation with opioid misuse.
Article in JSES international, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 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.
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Who cites it
2 citing papers in PubMed.
- Pre-operative narcotic use is associated with worse outcomes following primary anatomic and reverse shoulder arthroplasty.Journal of shoulder and elbow arthroplasty · 2026Article
- An update on regional anesthesia in shoulder surgery: a narrative review.Annals of joint · 2025Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
6 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Background: Orthopedic surgery has been highlighted as a contributor to the opioid epidemic. There is a paucity of literature focused specifically on opioid prescribing trends following shoulder surgery. Our aims were to describe national and regional trends in opioid prescribing following total shoulder arthroplasty, proximal humerus fracture fixation, and rotator cuff repair (RCR), and to correlate opioid prescribing trends after shoulder surgery with regional heroin use and new opioid misuse diagnoses. Methods: This is a retrospective study of 218,577 patients from a commercial insurance dataset who had undergone orthopedic shoulder procedures from 2014 to 2020. Opioid prescription data within 90-day postoperative were converted to morphine milligram equivalents (MMEs). Multivariate modelling was used to evaluate independent associations between MME's prescribed and subsequent new postoperative diagnosis of opioid dependence. Additionally, longitudinal mixed effects modeling was employed to understand aggregated prescriber habits by state over time and the subsequent effects on estimates of state heroin use and drug overdose deaths. Results: From 2014 to 2020, the mean number of MMEs prescribed nationally decreased by over 50% for total shoulder arthroplasty, proximal humerus fracture fixation, and RCR. Over the study period, most states demonstrated an overall downtrend of 90-day opioid prescribing for these procedures. Individuals with a new opioid misuse diagnosis following shoulder surgery were found to be younger (standardized mean difference [SMD] = 0.27, Conclusion: Orthopedic surgeons successfully reduced the number of opioids prescribed nationally after shoulder surgeries by over 50% during our study period with similar trends seen at the state level. Our data indicate a relationship between increased opioid prescribing after shoulder surgery and heroin use. This study highlights that while progress has been made, there is evidence that opioid prescribing following shoulder surgery is associated with the more widespread opioid epidemic, and that more research is needed to further lower postoperative opioid misuse in the future.
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