Detailing postoperative pain and opioid utilization after periacetabular osteotomy with automated mobile messaging

In the setting of periacetabular osteotomy (PAO), this investigation sought to (i) describe patient-reported pain scores and opioid utilization in the first 6 weeks following surgery and (ii) evaluate the effectiveness of postoperative communication using a robotic mobile messaging platform. Subjects indicated for PAO were enrolled from a young adult hip clinic. For the first 2 weeks after surgery, subjects received daily mobile messages inquiring about pain level on a 0–10 scale and the number of opioid pain medication tablets they consumed in the previous 24 h. Messaging frequency decreased to 3 per week in Weeks 3–6. Pain scores, opioid utilization and response rates with our mobile messaging platform were quantified for the 6-week postoperative period. Twenty-nine subjects underwent PAO. Twenty-one had concurrent hip arthroscopy. Average daily pain scores decreased over the first four postoperative days. Average pain scores reported were 5.9 ± 1.9, 4.1 ± 3.3 and 3.0 ± 3.5 on Day 1, Day 14 and Week 6, respectively. Reported opioid tablet utilization was 5.0 ± 3.2, 2.2 ± 2.0 and 0.0 ± 0.0 on Days 1 and 14 and at 6 weeks. Response rate for participants completing the 6-week messaging protocol was 84.1%. Patient-reported pain scores decreased over the first two postoperative weeks following PAO before plateauing in weeks 3–6. Opioid pain medication utilization increased in the first postoperative week before gradually declining to no tabs consumed at 6 weeks after PAO. Automated mobile messaging is an effective method of perioperative communication for the collection of pain scores and opioid utilization in patients undergoing PAO.