Clinical characteristic, type of procedure, preoperative opioid use, use of multimodal and regional anesthesia/analgesia, in-hospital pain ratings, and length of stay by trajectory classes
| Joint and spine | Abdominal surgery | ||||||
| Decreasing (n=328) | High (n=9) | Persistent (n=68) | P value | Decreasing (n=148) | Persistent (n=8) | P value | |
| Sex, n (%) | 0.81 | 0.74 | |||||
| Male | 145 (44) | 3 (33) | 30 (44) | 25 (17) | 1 (13) | ||
| Female | 183 (56) | 6 (67) | 38 (56) | 123 (83) | 7 (87) | ||
| Median (IQR) age in years | 63 (56–69) | 60 (52–63) | 61 (53–67) | 0.05 | 45 (35–52) | 44 (32–52) | 0.64 |
| Median (IQR) BMI in kg/m2 | 32.6 (27.6–38.3) | 30.1 (27.6–34.6) | 30.7 (26.8–37.2) | 0.89 | 37.6 (28.3–45.0) | 37.2 (28.8–43.9) | 0.76 |
| Race n (%) | 0.14 | 0.85 | |||||
| White | 276 (84) | 7 (78) | 59 (87) | 85 (57) | 4 (50) | ||
| African American | 51 (15) | 2 (22) | 7 (10) | 61 (41) | 4 (50) | ||
| Asian | 1 (1) | 0 (0) | 2 (3) | 2 (2) | 0 (0) | ||
| Hispanic ethnicity n (%) | 13 (4) | 0 (0) | 3 (3) | 0.81 | 34 (23) | 2 (25) | 0.89 |
| ASA physical class n (%) | 0.17 | 0.47 | |||||
| 1 | 18 (5) | 0 (0) | 2 (3) | 11 (7) | 0 (0) | ||
| 2 | 190 (58) | 4 (44) | 51 (75) | 81 (55) | 6 (75) | ||
| 3 | 120 (37) | 5 (56) | 15 (22) | 56 (38) | 2 (25 | ||
| Median (IQR) preoperative pain score on a scale of 0–10* | 2 (0–5) | 6 (2–8) | 3 (0–6) | 0.03 | 0 (0–0) | 0 (0–3) | 0.62 |
| Tobacco use n (%) | 0.42 | 0.87 | |||||
| Within last 2 years | 127 (39) | 5 (55) | 33 (48) | 47 (38) | 3 (37) | ||
| None or quit >2 years | 182 (55) | 4 (45) | 33 (49) | 90 (61) | 5 (63) | ||
| Missing | 19 (6) | 0 (0) | 2 (3) | 1 (1) | 0 (0) | ||
| Alcohol use n (%) | 0.34 | 0.43 | |||||
| Frequent (>2 drinks per week) | 108 (33) | 1 (11) | 21 (31) | 32 (22) | 1 (12) | ||
| Infrequent (≤2 drinks per week) | 99 (30) | 6 (67) | 25 (37) | 67 (45) | 6 (76) | ||
| None | 90 (23) | 2 (22) | 17 (25) | 47 (32) | 1 (12) | ||
| Missing | 31 (10) | 0 (0) | 5 (7) | 2 (1) | 0 | ||
| Preoperative opioid use (within 30 days) n (%) | 112 (34) | 7 (78) | 38 (56) | <0.01 | 29 (20) | 3 (38) | 0.22 |
| Type of surgery n (%) | |||||||
| Abdominal | 0.23 | ||||||
| Open | – | – | – | 42 (29) | 4 (57) | ||
| Laparoscopic | – | – | – | 92 (62) | 3 (43) | ||
| Robotic assisted | – | – | – | 13 (9) | 0 (0) | ||
| Joint | 0.44 | ||||||
| Hip | 83 (33) | 1 (25) | 11 (20) | – | – | ||
| Knee | 141 (55) | 3 (75) | 40 (74) | – | – | ||
| Shoulder | 8 (3) | 0 (0) | 0 (0) | – | – | ||
| Ankle | 5 (2) | 0 (0) | 1 (2) | – | – | ||
| Other | 17 (7) | 0 () | 3 (4) | – | – | ||
| Spine | 0.45 | ||||||
| Cervical | 26 (38) | 1 (20) | 4 (29) | – | – | ||
| Thoracic/lumbar | 47 (62) | 4 (80) | 10 (71) | – | – | ||
| Multimodal analgesia n (%) | 266 (81) | 8 (100) | 36 (94) | 0.01 | 1014 (69) | 6 (75) | 0.73 |
| Regional anesthesia/analgesia n (%) | 101 (31) | 1 (11) | 36 (53) | <0.01 | 62 (42) | 3 (38) | 0.81 |
| Median (IQR) average pain score during hospitalization on a scale of 0–10* | 3.3 (1.8–4.7) | 6.0 (2.9–7.0) | 3.7 (1.7–5.3) | 0.02 | 4.0 (2.9–5.2) | 4.8 (4.3–6.8) | 0.03 |
| Median (IQR) length of stay in hours | 48.9 (28.7–73.1) | 91.9 (54.6–159.4) | 33.1 (26.4–57.6) | <0.01 | 43.7 (28.8–56.6) | 69.5 (50.8–136.8) | 0.09 |
Data presented as n (% of column) or median (first to third quartile). Ordinal and nominal data were analyzed by constructing cross-tabulation tables and using a χ² test. Interval days were analyzed using the Kruskal-Wallis test (three groups) or the Mann-Whitney U test (two groups).
*Assessed by care provider using the numeric rating score for pain, where 0=no pain and 10=worst pain imaginable.
ASA, American Society of Anesthesiology.