medwireNews: Patients who undergo video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery (VATS) for stage I non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) are less likely to become long-term opioid users than their counterparts undergoing the conventional open procedure, findings suggest.
In an analysis of 3900 patients from the linked Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results and Medicare databases – 50.9% of whom had minimally invasive VATS – the likelihood of remaining on opioids between 90 and 180 days after surgery was significantly lower with VATS versus open resection, at an odds ratio (OR) of 0.69 after adjusting for factors such as age at diagnosis, sex, histology, and tumor size and site.
The reduced risk for long-term opioid use with VATS remained significant in a propensity-matched model (adjusted OR=0.52), say Emanuela Taioli and team, from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York, USA.
They continue: “The escalating severity of the opioid epidemic in the United States highlights the need for additional research into how pain management after surgery might be a contributing factor.”
These findings were presented at the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer 19th World Conference on Lung Cancer in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, and simultaneously published in JAMA Oncology.
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