Surgery patients who are taught to manage their pain with paracetamol and ibuprofen end up using few or no opioids, a US study finds.

Volunteers in the study underwent one of six minor surgeries: laparoscopic gallbladder removal, laparoscopic repair of a groin hernia, removal of the thyroid or parathyroid gland, robot-assisted removal of the prostate, endoscopic sinus surgery and laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy.

Before the surgery, the 190 volunteers received counselling on pain management and were advised to take a non-opioid pain reliever every three hours, alternating between 600mg of ibuprofen and 650mg of paracetamol.

Researchers also gave patients a small prescription of 5mg oxycodone, counselling them to take the narcotic only if their pain was unmanageable.