Trial reportOtolaryngology--head and neck surgery : official journal of American Academy of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery2025
Opioid Analgesia Following Pediatric Adenotonsillectomy: A Randomized Clinical Trial.
Trial report in Otolaryngology--head and neck surgery : official journal of American Academy of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to trial NCT03618823 (Randomized Clinical Trial of Non-Opioid Pain Medications After Adenotonsillectomy), which is not on this map. Cited by 3 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.
Randomized Clinical Trial of Non-Opioid Pain Medications After Adenotonsillectomy
Who cites it
3 citing papers in PubMed.
- Seeking a viable perioperative preemptive analgesia regimen: a prospective, randomized, controlled, double-blind superiority study of intravenous acetaminophen in children undergoing adenotonsillectomy.Frontiers in pediatrics · 2026Trial
- Safety Assessment of Perioperative Pain Medications for Children: Variation in Opioid Prescribing at Discharge.Annals of surgery open : perspectives of surgical history, education, and clinical approaches · 2026Article
- Perioperative Pain Relief in Pediatric Tonsillectomy: Current Strategies and Future Directions.Children (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
14 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
objectiveTo compare the safety and efficacy of nonopioid versus opioid pain management following adenotonsillectomy (AT) among pediatric patients. STUDY
designAn open-label randomized controlled trial.
settingTertiary care children's hospital.
methodsPatients aged 3 to 17 years undergoing AT were eligible. Participants were randomly assigned to receive either acetaminophen and ibuprofen (nonopioid group) or acetaminophen, ibuprofen, and oxycodone (opioid group). Pain scores and prevalence of emergency department (ED) visits, hospital readmission, and posttonsillectomy hemorrhage (PTH) were compared between groups.
resultsFrom January 2019 to March 2020, 267 patients were enrolled and randomly assigned; 144 completed a postoperative pain diary. Of the 144, 69 (48%) patients received an opioid prescription, and 75 (52%) did not. Mean pain scores before (opioid: 5.78, 95% CI: 5.29-6.27 vs nonopioid: 5.66, 95% CI: 5.20-6.12) and after (opioid: 2.33, 95% CI: 1.89-2.78 vs nonopioid: 2.24, 95% CI: 1.82-2.66) analgesics were not significantly different between opioid and nonopioid groups. Although 7/75 (9%) from the nonopioid group crossed over and requested opioids, only 43/69 (62%) randomly assigned to receive opioid prescription consumed opioids. The rate of opioid consumption increased with increasing age: 18/71 (25%) patients aged 3 to 7 years, 22/57 (39%) 8 to 12 years, and 10/16 (63%) 13 to 17 years, P = .015. Differences in ED visits, hospital readmissions, and PTH between opioid and nonopioid groups were not significant.
conclusionMany children do not require opioid analgesics following AT, particularly children less than 8 years of age. Postoperative pain scores and outcomes were similar in opioid versus nonopioid groups. Opioid prescriptions should be limited or avoided altogether after pediatric AT.
trial registrationTitle: Nonopioids for analgesia after adenotonsillectomy in children; ID: NCT03618823, Clinicaltrials.gov.
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