Trends and Patterns of Postoperative Opioid Exposure Among Surgical Patients After the 2016 Center for…

Cohort studyThe Journal of surgical research· Aug 2026

Trends and Patterns of Postoperative Opioid Exposure Among Surgical Patients After the 2016 Center for Disease Control Guideline for Prescribing Opioids.

Abdulaziz Elemosho, Odysseas P Chatzipanagiotou, Meher Angez … Timothy M Pawlik

Addiction MedicineCohort studyClinical practiceQ2IF 1.6

Longer postoperative opioid duration was associated with persistent opioid use

Trends and Patterns of Postoperative Opioid Exposure Among Surgical Patients After the 2016 Center for Disease Control Guideline for Prescribing Opioids.

Abdulaziz Elemosho … Timothy M Pawlik

The Journal of surgical research · Aug 2026

Background

Perioperative opioid exposure remains a public health concern because short-term postoperative prescribing may be associated with persistent opioid use and downstream substance-related harms.

Methods

Electronic health record data from the All of Us Research Program were used to identify opioid-naive adults undergoing qualifying surgical procedures from 1983 to 2023.

n = 790 patients

Results

each extra day of opioids raised the odds of continued use afterward

aOR by subgroup · 95% CI

More results

Among 13,240 opioid-naive surgical patients, 5748 (43.4%) had documented opioid exposure within 30 d of surgery.

Acute opioid-related events occurred in 674 patients (5.1%).

Persistent opioid use occurred in 116 patients (0.9% overall; 2.0% among those with 30-d opioid exposure).

More results

Any substance use disorder diagnosis within 5 y occurred in 790 patients (6.0%).

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Conclusion · 1 of 2

Among opioid-naive surgical patients, longer postoperative opioid duration was associated with persistent opioid use and subsequent substance use disorder diagnoses.

Conclusion · 2 of 2

The 2016 CDC guideline was temporally associated with lower postoperative milligram equivalent and changing opioid-related outcome trends, although causal attribution cannot be inferred from this retrospective observational design.

Trends and Patterns of Postoperative Opioid Exposure Among Surgical Patients After the 2016 Center for Disease Control Guideline for Prescribing Opioids.

Trends and Patterns of Postoperative Opioid Exposure Among Surgical Patients After the 2016 Center for Disease Control Guideline for Prescribing Opioids.

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