Too Much Variability in Opioid Prescriptions for Pediatric Operations

Topic overview

Do you routinely give your pediatric patients narcotics after a laparoscopic appendectomy for simple appendicitis?  Dr. K. Tinsley Anderson and Dr. KuoJen Tsao evaluated their appendectomy patients at Children's Memorial Hermann Hospital in Houston, Texas, and found significant variation in the amount and duration of narcotics prescribed.  Some patients had a prescription for a day; others for a month!
View the article here:http://ow.ly/SkoQ30omNcI
Should pediatric patients get narcotics for this procedure?  If so, how much?  Would you support national guidelines for prescriptions for routine operations?
This video was created by Alexander Gibbons from Akron Children's Hospital.

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