Hello!
We see people all the time with neck pain, which is why we are known as the only place to go for Neck pain.
I am going to be straight with you, we are not an enthusiastic fan of surgery or people taking painkillers for a long time.
So, I wondered, is it worse to do both?
Let us look at what the research says.
This study called “Chronic preoperative opioid use is a risk factor for increased complications, resource use, and costs after cervical fusion.”
In English: using opioid painkillers before surgery puts you at risk of more complications after a neck fusion.
Let us look at the findings.
They looked at just over 6600 people who were using opioid pain killers before a neck fusion and found that “Preoperative Chronic Opioid Therapy (COT) was associated with a higher risk of 90-day wound, all-cause 90-day Emergency Department (ED) visits, and pain-related ED visits.”
Chronic opioid therapy means using opioid-based pain killers for a long time.
“. Patients who had preoperative COT were more likely to receive epidural or facet joint injections within 1 year after surgery.”
“These patients were also more likely to undergo a repeat cervical fusion within a year than patients who did not have preoperative COT.”
“Preoperative COT had a higher likelihood of long-term use after surgery.” Long term use here means to continue using opioid-based pain killers for a long time after surgery. Does not sound like surgery will help you get off painkillers.
“Long-term opioid use after surgery was associated with a higher risk of new-onset constipation”
It sounds like combining opioid-based painkillers and surgery is the best way to get the worst complications of both.
Do you want to get off painkillers and avoid surgery?
Jason
