OTC painkillers enough for post-op patients
More than half chose to skip opioids and nearly all found the pain 'manageable'
28th June 2019
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