Opioid use before knee replacement surgery results in worse pain outcomes for patients

Patients who had higher pain catastrophizing, the degree of an exaggerated, negative response to pain, were more likely to take opioids for pain relief, a team of investigators found. They found that patients who used opioids to manage their knee pain before their total knee replacement had less pain relief after the operation. According to a new study, patients who took opioids before knee surgery experienced about 9 percent less pain reduction at 6 months following surgery compared to patients...