About 30 Percent of Pediatric Surgery Patients Receive Opioid Rx

FRIDAY July 10, 2026 (HealthDay News) — About 31 percent of pediatric surgery patients receive an opioid prescription at discharge, according to a study published online June 23 in the Journal of the American College of Surgeons.

Anoosha Moturu, M.D., M.P.H., from the American College of Surgeons in Chicago, and colleagues conducted a retrospective cohort study using data from the NSQIP-Ped and Pediatric Health Information System (PHIS) for non-neonate children aged 0 to 17 years undergoing surgery to examine postoperative opioid prescribing.

The researchers found that 31 percent of the 142,748 NSQIP-Ped cases from 157 hospitals had an opioid prescription at discharge. This corresponded to 27 percent of cases after adjustment for PHIS case-volume. Overall, 95 percent of the estimated opioid prescriptions at discharge were accounted for by the top 20 procedure groups. The highest opioid prescription proportions were seen for chest wall, lower extremity, and spine procedures at 82, 78, and 77 percent, respectively. Prescribing practice variability was highest for craniofacial procedures, cleft-lip palate procedures, and fracture repair. The contribution to total opioid prescriptions was highest for fracture repair, spine procedures, and lower extremity procedures, at 16, 13, and 13 percent, respectively.

“This study highlights the importance of analyzing large-scale opioid prescribing patterns to support safe, effective postoperative pain management in children and help hospital systems standardize care,” senior author Mehul V. Raval, M.D., from the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago, said in a statement. “Benchmarking these data helps us identify opportunities to improve pain management and eliminate opioids where appropriate.”

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