• William C Van Cleve and Eliot B Grigg.
• Department of Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, United States.
• J Clin Anesth. 2017 Sep 1; 41: 16-20.

Study ObjectiveWe attempted to describe the opioid prescribing patterns for ambulatory pediatric surgery in the United States from 2007 to 2014.DesignRetrospective database review.SettingOperating room ambulatory encounters as determined by the Truven Health Marketscan Commercial Claims and Encounters database.PatientsA total of 929,874 ambulatory surgical encounters were identified in patients <18years of age and, of these, 439,286 encounters generated an analgesic prescription.InterventionsN/A MEASUREMENTS: The analgesic prescription was described in terms of the type of opioid along with the inclusion of acetaminophen and/or NSAIDs.Main ResultsThe probability of receiving a post-operative analgesic prescription increased with age, ranging from 18.2% of infants to 71.7% of teens. Acetaminophen with codeine (APAP/C) was the most common drug for infants (63.8%), while acetaminophen with hydrocodone (APAP/H) was the most common analgesic prescription for teens (53.6%). APAP/C and APAP/H were the predominant drugs used for all procedure types.ConclusionsSubstantial variability in analgesic prescribing at the level of the procedure performed, both in terms of the probability of receiving a prescription and in which drugs were prescribed. We observed significant age and procedure-based variability in opioid prescribing following pediatric ambulatory surgery.Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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