Between 2013 and 2018, doctors relatively often chose to prescribe oxycodone to patients who received a knee or hip replacement. The share of tramadol prescriptions decreased during this period. Heather van Brug (LUMC) et al write this in the British Journal of Anaesthesia.
The researchers linked data from Stichting Pharmaceutical Kengetallen to data from the National Registry of Orthopedic Implants (LROI). This showed that about seven out of ten patients with a knee prosthesis were prescribed one or more opiates. In patients with a hip prosthesis, this was the case for about half of them.
The researchers then looked at which opiates doctors prescribed to patients after knee or hip surgery. The proportion of patients who were prescribed oxycodone as the first opiate after surgery increased for knee arthroplasties from 44 percent in 2013 to 86 percent in 2018. For hip arthroplasties, the proportion of oxycodone prescriptions rose during this period from 30 to 84 percent. Tramadol, which was still prescribed to the majority of patients with both knee and hip surgery in 2013, still accounted for about 11 percent of prescriptions in 2018.
The researchers also looked at which doctors prescribed the opiates. In 2018, the majority of these patients received their first prescription from an orthopedic surgeon. Repeat prescriptions were mainly prescribed by general practitioners. The share of repeat prescriptions prescribed by GPs decreased somewhat between 2013 and 2018. Orthopedic surgeons have started to write repeat prescriptions more often during this period.
