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I
t is a stinging indictment by one of healthcare's leading voices:
Surgeons have contributed to the nation's opioid epidemic by
overprescribing opioids for post-operative pain relief.
"Surgeons are unwittingly enablers of addiction, abuse and
overdosage," says surgeon, writer and public health researcher
Atul A. Gawande, MD, MPH, of Harvard Medical School, in this
month's Annals of Surgery (osmag.net/CVjo4H).
Dr. Gawande theorizes that surgeons frequently supply patients with a
large excess of painkillers so they don't strand them with an insufficient
supply of pills for their pain and no straightforward way to get a refill
without a written prescription. "We surgeons turn out to be suppliers of
Are Surgeons Fueling
The Opioid Epidemic?
If surgeons are "unwittingly enablers of addiction, abuse and overdosage,"
how should they manage post-op pain? Daniel Cook | Executive Editor
