Cornea specialists are the highest opioid prescribers at a large academic eye institute in the USA
Background/aim To evaluate the opioid prescription patterns across ophthalmic subspecialties at a large academic eye centre.Methods A single site, retrospective cross-sectional study. Electronic medical records from the year 2018 were screened. Ophthalmology patients ≥18 years of age were included....
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| Main Authors: | , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
BMJ Publishing Group
2025-03-01
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| Series: | BMJ Open Ophthalmology |
| Online Access: | https://bmjophth.bmj.com/content/10/1/e002012.full |
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| Summary: | Background/aim To evaluate the opioid prescription patterns across ophthalmic subspecialties at a large academic eye centre.Methods A single site, retrospective cross-sectional study. Electronic medical records from the year 2018 were screened. Ophthalmology patients ≥18 years of age were included. The main outcome measures were patient demographics, outpatient opioid prescriptions, ophthalmic procedure and prescriber details, including department and training level.Results 1654 opioid prescriptions were written, accounting for 2.2% of all ophthalmic procedures in a calendar year. Of the patients who received prescriptions, 51.4% were female (n=851) with a mean age of 52.3±18.5 (range 18–95 years). In general, the morphine equivalent dose was low, with an average of 12.4±6.75 pills dispensed (range 1–60) with 0.0±0.01 refills (range 0–3). Cornea specialists were the highest opioid prescribers (22.7% of all providers who wrote a prescription), followed by oculoplastics (22.2%) and retina (18.4%). The most common procedure for which an opioid was prescribed was cornea crosslinking (14.3% of all opioid prescriptions).Conclusions While opioid prescriptions are generally low for ophthalmic procedures across departments, cornea specialists accounted for nearly a third of opioid prescriptions. Over half of corneal crosslinking patients received opioid prescriptions; there remains an unmet need for opioid-sparing therapy for these patients and others with severe eye pain. |
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| ISSN: | 2397-3269 |