Methadone and a Clinical Pathway in Adolescent Idiopathic Scoliosis Surgery: A Historically Controlled Study

STUDY DESIGN: Historically controlled clinical trial. OBJECTIVES: Patients presenting for correction of adolescent idiopathic scoliosis (AIS) by posterior spinal fusion may benefit from structured clinical pathways. We studied the effects of implementing a published clinical pathway for the perioperative care of patients with AIS that required intraoperative use of methadone at our institution. METHODS: We performed a historically controlled clinical trial of patients undergoing posterior spinal fusion for AIS by comparing a retrospectively collected control group of 25 patients with a prospective experimental group of 14 patients receiving methadone, gabapentin, propofol, and remifentanil as part of a new clinical pathway. RESULTS: Use of the pathway decreased average pain scores evaluated by the Numeric Rating Scale in the 24 hours following surgery (4.8 [4-6] to 3.4 [2-4], P = .03 [−2.6 to −0.2; t = −2.3]) and postoperative opioid consumption by 76% (41 [29-51] mg to 10 [4-17] mg, P < .001 [−45 to −15; Welch’s t = 4.9]) during the same period. Improved analgesia and reduced reliance on opioids facilitated other postoperative elements of the clinical pathway and shortened the average hospital length of stay by 1 day (4 [3-6] days to 3 [3-5] days, P = .001 [−2 to −1; U = 67, Z = −3.3]). CONCLUSIONS: Multimodal analgesia and a clinical pathway add value in the perioperative care of patients undergoing posterior spinal fusion for AIS by improving analgesia and shortening hospitalization. The prospective arm of the trial was registered at clinicaltrials.gov under NCT02481570.