Sarcopenia is associated with an increase in long-term use of analgesics after elective surgery under general anesthesia

Abstract

PurposeTo elucidate the association of presurgical sarcopenia and long-term non-opioid analgesic and opioid use after elective surgery under general anesthesia.MethodsWe conducted this population-based propensity score matched to investigate the effects of sarcopenia and long-term non-opioid analgesic and opioid use after elective surgery under general anesthesia between 1 October 2016 and 31 December 2019 from Taiwan’s National Health Insurance Research Database. Sarcopenia is a disease and coded as M62.84 in the International Classification of Diseases, 10th Revision, Clinical Modification. The primary outcome was the combined rate of the long-term use of all non-opioid analgesics or opioids over 3 and 6 months after elective surgery. By performing a logistic regression analysis, we calculated the adjusted ORs (aORs) with 95% CIs to identify the independent predictors for long-term non-opioid analgesic and opioid use after surgery.ResultsIn total, 2860 patients underwent elective surgery. The 3-month non-opioid analgesic and opioid use rates were respectively 49.7% and 1.8% in the sarcopenia group and 37.9% and 0.9% in the non-sarcopenia group; by contrast, 6-month non-opioid analgesic and opioid use rates were respectively 31.6% and 1.2% in the sarcopenia group and 17.2% and 0.3% in the non-sarcopenia group. Moreover, presurgical sarcopenia increased the risk of long-term non-opioid analgesic and opioid use after elective surgery under general anesthesia (aORs for non-opioid analgesic use over 3 and 6 months after surgery: 1.17 (95% CI 1.05 to 2.23) and 1.26 (95% CI 1.04 to 1.45), respectively; aORs for opioid use over 3 and 6 months after surgery: 1.17 (95% CI 1.07 to 2.21) and 1.23 (95% CI 1.10 to 3.64), respectively).ConclusionSarcopenia is associated with higher rates of long-term non-opioid analgesic and opioid use after elective surgery under general anesthesia.SummaryThe aim of this study was to compare the long-term use of non-opioid analgesics and opioids after elective surgery under general anesthesia between patients with and without sarcopenia. Results suggest that patients with sarcopenia are more likely to have increased use of non-opioid analgesics and opioids after surgery. Further research is needed to determine if sarcopenia can be modified prior to surgery and if this impacts the need for long-term pain management with these medications.

Early childhood general anesthesia and risk of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder

“…It has been demonstrated to be a crucial tool in generating real‐world evidence that promotes evidence‐based clinical decision‐making and health policy formulation. Multiple approaches, such as the validation of diagnosis codes and the handling of unmeasured confounders, have been employed to enhance the credibility and accuracy of NHIRD research, thereby significantly increasing the utility of the database (Chen et al., 2023; Sun et al., 2023a, 2023b, 2023c). Additionally, the high degree of precision and accuracy in the diagnosis of diseases documented in the NHIRD serves to further enhance its reliability as a dependable source of population‐based data for research purposes (Chen et al., 2023; Sun et al., 2023a, 2023b, 2023c).…”

“…Therefore, we opted to exclude these confounding factors from our analysis. The NHIRD in Taiwan has become an essential and trustworthy source for conducting population-based research covering a wide range of medical conditions (Chen, Yu, Chen, Shia, & Wu, 2023;Sun, Chen, Wu, & Zhang, 2023a, 2023b, 2023c. It has been demonstrated to be a crucial tool in generating real-world evidence that promotes evidence-based clinical decision-making and health policy formulation.…”

Association between postoperative hyperactive delirium and major complications in elderly patients undergoing emergency hip fracture surgery: A large‐scale cohort study

“…All this information has been collected from encrypted NHIRD sources. We solely rely on NHIRD; there is no alternative dataset in our possession 29,32,33 . To establish links across all datasets, patient identification numbers were utilized.…”