Opioid Overprescription in Adolescents and Young Adults Undergoing Hip Arthroscopy

BACKGROUND: Previous studies have examined factors related to the increased use of opioids after hip arthroscopy in adults. However, few have focused on the adolescent population. PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to compare the opioids prescribed to opioids consumed after hip arthroscopic procedures in adolescent and young adult patients, and to determine patient or surgical factors associated with increased postoperative opioid use. METHODS: Adolescent and young adult patients who underwent hip arthroscopy and associated arthroscopic interventions between January 2017 and January 2020 were included. Patients with a diagnosed pain syndrome or history of chronic pain, as determined by the patient taking opioid medications prior to surgery, were excluded. Daily postoperative opioid intake was recorded via pain-control logbooks. The outcome of the study was defined as the average total number of opioid tablets consumed postoperatively. RESULTS: Fifty-eight patients returned completed logbooks, 72% of whom were female patients. The average age was 21.30 years (range, 14.9 – 34.2). Most patients (73%) were prescribed 30 oxycodone tablets. The median amount of tablets consumed was 7 (range, 0-41) over a median duration of 7 days (range, 1-22). The median ratio of tablets consumed to prescribed was 20% and the 95(th) percentile of opioids consumed was 28 tablets. Bivariate analysis showed that patient age at surgery was positively correlated to the total amount of tablets consumed (r=0.28, p=0.04) and to the ratio of tablets consumed to prescribed (r=0.30, p=0.03). Duration of surgery was negatively correlated to the number of days tablets were consumed (r=-0.31, p=0.03). Multivariate analysis showed that patients who were prescribed more than 30 tablets took on average 7.8 more tablets overall compared to those prescribed 30 or fewer tablets (p=0.003), and that for each additional year of age, the ratio of tablets consumed to prescribed increased by 1% (p=0.02). CONCLUSION: After undergoing hip arthroscopy and associated arthroscopic procedures, adolescents and young adult patients are commonly overprescribed opioids, consuming on average only one-fifth of the tablets prescribed. This finding mirrors trends in the pediatric knee arthroscopy literature and provides an opportunity to reassess current opioid prescribing behaviors in the adolescent and young adult populations.