Assessment of Preoperative Opioid Use Prevalence and Clinical Outcomes in Pulmonary Resection

Over 30% of lung resection patients in the STS Database had prior exposure to opioid use.  They experienced longer length of postoperative stay, more frequent visits to the ED, and a higher incidence of readmission within 90 days.  Athough there is growing interest in standardized enhanced recovery pathways after lung resection, this challenging subset of patients appears to require unique targeted postoperative interventions.