FDA orders opioid label changes to highlight long-term risks
Editor's Note The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is requiring safety labeling changes for all opioid pain medications to better emphasize and explain the risks associated with long-term use, according to a July 31 announcement. These changes follow a May advisory committee meeting where the agency reviewed data on…
Translating MIPS Value Pathways into perioperative practice—What OR leaders need to know
In July 2025, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) proposed sweeping changes to the Medicare Physician Fee Schedule for calendar year 2026. Among the most impactful updates is the launch of the Ambulatory Specialty Model (ASM)—a mandatory value-based payment program focused on heart failure and low back pain.…
Study: Feedback-based intervention boosts opioid prescribing adherence without worsening pain control
Editor's Note Providing tailored feedback to surgical prescribers significantly increased adherence to opioid prescribing guidelines without affecting patients’ ability to manage postoperative pain, according to research published June 11 in JAMA Surgery. The study tested whether monthly reports that included peer prescribing comparisons and patient-reported outcomes could influence opioid prescribing…
Study: Racial, insurance disparities persist in access to buprenorphine after opioid-related events
Editor's Note Black and Hispanic patients remain significantly less likely than White patients to receive buprenorphine after an opioid-related health care event, according research published June 26 in JAMA Network Open. Patients with Medicaid or Medicare Advantage also had higher odds of receiving buprenorphine than those with commercial insurance. The…
Painkiller without opioid risks shows potential in animal trials
Editor's Note An experimental compound developed at Duke University School of Medicine provides strong pain relief without the side effects or addiction potential of opioids, according to a May 19 announcement from the university. Known as SBI-810, the drug targets a specific receptor in the nervous system and uses a…
Study: Procedural sedation causes heat loss on par with general anesthesia in endoscopy patients
Editor's Note Research shows patients undergoing procedural sedation for endoscopic procedures experience significant and often undetected heat loss comparable to that seen during general anesthesia despite widespread assumptions that sedation preserves thermoregulation. Findings were published May 27 in The Journal of PeriAnesthesia Nursing. Conducted at a tertiary hospital in…
Study: Blocking stress-linked prolactin surge relieves postoperative pain in women
Editor's Note Blocking stress-induced prolactin may significantly reduce postoperative pain in women and curb the need for opioids, according to a study led by University of Arizona Health Sciences. News-Medical.Net summarized the findings May 20. Published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the research suggests a path toward…
Personalized perioperative pain management reduces opioid use
Editor's Note Helping patients taper opioids preoperatively before deploying multimodal care strategies can help prevent instances of patients already with prescriptions going home with even higher doses. That’s the main takeaway from an April 22 MedCentral interview with Marie N. Hanna, MD, division chief for regional anesthesia and acute pain…
Study links intraoperative synthetic opioids, worse postoperative pain
Editor's Note Using powerful synthetic opioids remifentanil and sufentanil during surgery increases risk of patients suffering during recovery, according to a study in the journal Regional Anesthesia & Pain Medicine. HealthDay reported the news February 27. According to the article, researchers analyzed data from 971 patients who underwent surgery—37% orthopedic…
FDA approves new non-opioid analgesic
Editor's Note The FDA has approved Journavx (suzetrigine), a first-in-class non-opioid analgesic, for the treatment of moderate to severe acute pain in adults. According to the agency’s January 30 announcement, the drug targets sodium channels in the peripheral nervous system to block pain signals before they reach the brain, representing…
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