Clinical and Translational Research
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2021. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Orthop. Sep 18, 2021; 12(9): 700-709
Published online Sep 18, 2021. doi: 10.5312/wjo.v12.i9.700
Trends and risk factors for opioid administration for non-emergent lower back pain
Chukwuweike U Gwam, Ahmed K Emara, Noor Chughtai, Sameer Javed, T David Luo, Kevin Y Wang, Morad Chughtai, Tadhg O'Gara, Johannes F Plate
Chukwuweike U Gwam, T David Luo, Kevin Y Wang, Tadhg O'Gara, Department of Orthopedic Surgery, Wake Forest School of Medicine, Winston-Salem, NC 27157, United States
Ahmed K Emara, Noor Chughtai, Sameer Javed, Morad Chughtai, Department of Orthopedic Surgery, Cleveland Clinic Foundation, Cleveland, OH 44195, United States
Johannes F Plate, Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, University of Pittsburgh, 5200 Centre Avenue, Suite 415, Pittsburgh, PA 15232, USA
Author contributions: Gwam CU, Javed S, and Chughtai N wrote the initial draft; Gwam CU, Luo TD, Chughtai M, and Plate JF was involved in conceptualization; Gwam CU, Emara AK, Wang KY, and Plate JF performed statistical analysis; Emara AK and Wang KY did data procurement; Emara AK, Chughtai N, Luo TD, Chughtai M, and O’Gara T performed critical draft revisions; Chughtai M, O’Gara T contributed to supervision.
Institutional review board statement: The present investigation was a retrospective study that utilized a publicly available deidentified database; therefore, no institutional review board.
Informed consent statement: The present study utilized a publicly available database. Therefore, Informed consent statement were not required.
Conflict-of-interest statement: Plate FJ has the following disclosures, all of which are not related to the topic of the present investigation: Biocomposites Inc.: Research support; Total Joint Orthopedics: Paid consultant; VisualDX: Publishing royalties, financial or material support; Other authors have nothing to disclose
Data sharing statement: All authors had access to the data for the current investigation.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Morad Chughtai, MD, Surgeon, Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Cleveland Clinic Foundation, 9500 Euclid Avenue, Cleveland, OH 44195, United States. chughtm@ccf.org
Received: February 25, 2021
Peer-review started: February 25, 2021
First decision: March 31, 2021
Revised: April 8, 2021
Accepted: August 24, 2021
Article in press: August 24, 2021
Published online: September 18, 2021
Core Tip

Core Tip: A trend of diminishing opioid prescription for low back pain in the emergency department can be appreciated over a span of eight years. Such a trend may be a reflection of policies and guidelines aiming at opioid regulation. Factors that may increase the likelihood of opioid prescription for low back pain include age over 43.84-years-old, higher income, private insurance, the obtainment of radiographic imaging in the emergency department, and presenting within the Midwest/South/West regions of the United States. Providers should be cognizant of such risk factors given the burden imposed by opioid prescriptions on the healthcare system.