Risk Factors for Opioid Use Following Anterior Cruciate Ligament Reconstruction (ACLR) in a Cohort of 21,202 ACLR

Objectives: The misuse of opioid medication has contributed to a significant national crisis affecting public health, as well as patient morbidity and medical costs. We sought to determine baseline opioid utilization in patients undergoing ACLR and examine demographic, patient characteristics, and medical factors associated with postoperative opioid utilization. Methods: Primary elective ACLR were identified using an integrated healthcare system’s ACLR registry (January 2005-January 2015). Patients with cancer or those who had other knee surgery in the preceding year were excluded. We studied the effect of preoperative and intraoperative risks factors on number of dispensed opioid medication prescriptions (Rx) in the early (0-90 days) and late (91-360 days) postoperative periods using logit regression. Risk factors studied included: number of opioid Rx in preceding year, age, gender, race, American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) classification, body mass index (BMI), activity at the time of injury, time from injury to ACLR, concomitant procedure or injury, medical comorbidities, and opioid-use comorbidities. Results: Of 21202 ACLR from 20813 patients, 25.5% used at least 1 opioid Rx in the one-year preoperative period. 17.7% and 2.7% used ≥2 opioid Rx in the early and late recovery periods, respectively. The risk factors associated with greater opioid Rx in both the early and late periods included: preoperative opioid use, age >20 years, ASA classification of ≥3, other activity at the time of injury, repaired cartilage injury, chronic pulmonary disease, and substance abuse. Risk factors associated with opioid Rx use during the early period only included: other race, acute ACL injury, repaired meniscal injury, multi-ligament injury, and dementia/psychoses. Risk factors associated with greater opioid Rx during the late period included: female gender, BMI >25 kg/m2, motor vehicle accident as the mechanism of injury, and hypertension. Conclusion: We identified several risk factors for postoperative opioid usage after ACLR. The strongest predictors of postoperative prescription opioid usage after ACLR included preoperative opioid use, increasing age, ASA classification of 3 or more, other activity at the time of injury, repaired meniscal injury, cartilage repair, chronic pulmonary disease, and substance abuse. Awareness of risk factors for postoperative opioid usage may encourage more targeted utilization of opioids in pain management. Surgeons may consider additional support or referral to a pain specialist for patients with these risk factors. [Figure: see text]