Patient Education and Use of Post Operative Pain Medication in Ambulatory Hand Surgery: a Randomized Controlled Trial

Hospital for Special Surgery (HSS)

Status: Completed

Conditions: Ambulatory Hand Surgery

Treatments: Other: Standard of care post-operative counseling; Behavioral: Patient education regarding indications for opioid use and side effects of opioid use after hand surgery

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT03219177

2016-0330

Details and patient eligibility

About

There is a current opioid epidemic in the United States partially fueled by excess prescribing practices after surgery. The objective of this study is to decrease the amount of opioids needed after ambulatory hand surgery. In this randomized control trial, patients will be randomized into a patient education group and into a control group. The education group will be provided with a pre-operative video detailing proper indications for opioid use after hand surgery, alternative pain management strategies to try before using prescription opioid medications, and side effects associated with opioid use. Patients will also receive information on the current opioid epidemic. Patients will be reminded of the information given pre-operatively after surgery in the post-anesthesia care unit. The control group will not receive pre-operative education and will only receive standard of care post-operative counseling by nursing in the post-anesthesia care unit. All patients will be given a pain log, pain medication diary and participate in phone/email surveys to determine number of opioid pills taken, pain levels, and satisfaction with surgery. The investigators hypothesize that the education group will have decreased opioid intake and increased patient satisfaction compared to the control group.

Enrollment: 400 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 18+ years old

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• English Speaking: must be able to communicate over the phone or by email to perform questionnaires
• Primary elective ambulatory hand surgery (bony or soft tissue)

Bony: Scaphoidectomy/ligament reconstruction tendon interposition (LRTI), Arthrodesis, Arthroplasty Soft Tissue: Carpal tunnel release (CTR), Trigger Finger (TF), DeQuervain's (DQ), Cyst removal, Cubital tunnel, Dupuytren's, tendon transfer, arthroscopy of wrist or elbow

Exclusion criteria

• Disability or preop pain in ipsilateral upper extremity from a secondary condition not related to the study procedure
• Allergy or inability to consume oxycodone, Percocet or Vicodin due to a particular health state
• Current Substance Abuse
• HSS employees

Trial design

Primary purpose: Prevention

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: Double Blind

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400 participants in 2 patient groups

Patient education group

Experimental group

Treatment:

Behavioral: Patient education regarding indications for opioid use and side effects of opioid use after hand surgery

Control- Standard of care counseling

Active Comparator group

Treatment:

Other: Standard of care post-operative counseling