Article Text
Abstract
Background and Aims The Perioperative Pain Service (POPS) at Hospital for Special Surgery (HSS) is a multidisciplinary team that manages acute and complex pain in orthopedic surgical patients. The team is dichotomized into an acute pain service (APS) and chronic/complex pain service (CPS). APS is consulted during hospitalization for patient-controlled analgesia (PCA) when a patient experiences uncontrolled postsurgical pain without any previously known risk factors, or when surgeons pre-emptively request this pain management strategy. The aim of this study was to identify APS utilization and case characteristics in a single, high-volume orthopedic specialty hospital.
Methods After IRB approval for a prospective, standard of care POPS registry, cases requiring an APS consult during hospitalization for orthopedic surgical procedures between January 2022 and May 2023 were identified, and metrics extracted.
Results figure 1). PCA was administered to 98% of cases, 71% of which were intravenous
(IV) opioid only and 26% were epidural PCAs. Most spine (99%) and arthroplasty (54%) cases received IV opioid only PCA. Perineural catheters were utilized in 43 (<1%) of cases, 30 (69%) of which were for upper extremity surgeries. Overall, 3% of APS cases required inpatient CPS involvement.
Conclusions APS was the most frequently used pain consult, and most patients successfully received a PCA. A small subset of APS cases required CPS involvement, suggesting that some pain management issues required escalation.