"Opioid-Free Hernia Repair Protocol Reduces Pediatric Opioid Exposure Without Compromising Pain Control".

Cohort studyJournal of pediatric surgery· Aug 2026

"Opioid-Free Hernia Repair Protocol Reduces Pediatric Opioid Exposure Without Compromising Pain Control".

Abigail Teitelbaum, Kristin LeMarbe, Diane Studzinski … Begum Akay

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Pediatric AnesthesiaCohort studyQ2IF 2.1

Postoperative opioid use in pediatric hernia repair fell from 50.8% to 16.4%

"Opioid-Free Hernia Repair Protocol Reduces Pediatric Opioid Exposure Without Compromising Pain Control".

Abigail Teitelbaum … Begum Akay

Journal of pediatric surgery · Aug 2026 · Q2 in General Medicine

Purpose

Protocolizing perioperative pain management may reduce opioid exposure in children.

Methods

We reviewed all pediatric ambulatory hernia cases two years before and after protocol implementation.

n = 721 cases

Results

postoperative opioid use dropped sharply after the protocol

More results

Following protocol implementation, there was a significant increase of regional anesthesia (6.2% to 44.1%, p<.0001) and non-opioid analgesics intraoperatively (34.5% to 95.3%, p<.0001).

Opioid prescriptions at discharge decreased from 11.5% to 1.9% (p <.0001).

Maximum reported pain scores decreased (p<.001), as did minimum reported pain scores (p <.0001).

More results

82.1% of patients/proxy reported satisfaction with pain control in the hospital and 76.1% with pain control at home.

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Conclusion

Our opioid-free pediatric hernia repair protocol significantly reduced perioperative opioid use, without compromising pain control, postoperative outcomes, or patient/proxy satisfaction, supporting the wider integration of opioid-free multimodal pain regimens in pediatric surgical care.

"Opioid-Free Hernia Repair Protocol Reduces Pediatric Opioid Exposure Without Compromising Pain Control".

"Opioid-Free Hernia Repair Protocol Reduces Pediatric Opioid Exposure Without Compromising Pain Control".

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