LOS ANGELES — Results presented at the North American Spine Society Annual Meeting showed significant improvement in patients’ average pain scores following the implementation of a quality improvement initiative that included a pain protocol that used maximized, standardized nonopioid medication. Pain scores improved in the first 72 hours after surgery, in addition to a drastic reduction in opioid prescriptions, according to results presented by Corey Walker, MD, of Barrow Neurological Institute in Phoenix.

Walker and colleagues used cohorts of patients who underwent traditional lumbar spine fusion and compared reported pain scores in 115 patients treated before implementation of the pain protocol and in 126 patients treated after implementation of the protocol. The protocol, which was evidence-based, included a short course of NSAIDs, acetaminophen, topical lidocaine patches, scheduled muscle relaxants, gabapentinoids and opioids as needed as a breakthrough medication. Specifically, researchers retrospectively studied pain outcomes in patients the first year after open, traditional lumbar fusion.