local doctors taking a new approach to
pain control your pain never gets bad
enough to require those strong opiate
narcotics helping patients avoid the
risk of addiction I'm thoroughly
impressed and I didn't have to touch one
opiate the opioid epidemic has a lot of
patients concerned about taking the
powerful drugs after surgery are they
really necessary a new local study is
testing a different way to control
post-surgery pain dr. Frank McGeorge is
here to explain duct exactly Devin and
Kimberly you know instead of giving
patients potentially addictive drugs and
telling them to just take them as needed
this new approach is more aggressive
about preventing pain the goal reduce
the need for opioids right from the
start let's check your motion out so you
start with your hands out in front lift
them all the way up as high as you can
go
great it's a move that was impossible
for Joshua Cox just four months ago the
rotator cuff was torn it was torn right
now the 40-year old dad from Rochester
Hills also had arthritis in his shoulder
I'm a union I worker so we do the steel
structures of buildings bridges
skyscrapers and just wear and tear over
the years between the manual labor that
I do and there's lots of softball and
baseball over the years after six years
of suffering and it got to the point to
where I just couldn't take the constant
pain in my shoulder anymore one of the
reasons he put off surgery for so long
was concerned about needing to take
opioid painkillers I've had family
members in the past him issues with them
so it was scary I didn't wanna I didn't
want to have to take pain medication but
when he gets you moving surgeons Rob
Keller and Nicholas fresh of Ascension
Crittenden Hospital say it's a common
concern patients are coming out fairly
educated on the opioid crisis and so a
lot are coming in saying how can I find
ways to not take a ton of opioids
they're scared they're scared of
becoming addicted killer says there is a
clear problem with the standard approach
you get some narcotics after a surgery
and whenever you haven't enough pain you
start taking them so people are scared
to take these opioids they wait and
sometimes they wait too long
they're paying
out of control and then they have to
take too many their study addresses that
issue by testing a proactive protocol
where you take non opioid medications
schedule so your pain never gets bad
enough to require those strong opiate
narcotics the medications are chosen to
target different pathways of pain though
there's tylenol everyone knows that
there's an anti-inflammatory
there's tramadol which is a small pain
medicine and then there's dabba patent
which is a nerve medication patients
receive their medications in advance and
start taking them before the surgery
even begins it's been an adjustment for
everyone most people are actually just
used to the old protocols they're used
to getting vicodin or Norco or oxycodone
and so when you tell them you know
you're gonna have maybe 15 to 30 pills
of pain medicine at first they kind of
look at you like you're crazy but so far
the results are overwhelmingly positive
that we get very few calls to refill any
pain medication which is completely
different from what it used to be
we're about 30 to 40 patients into the
study we're looking at things like ACL
reconstructions rotator cuff repairs and
our average opioid intake is about a
half a pill so normally those surgeries
you're looking at more 30 40 50 pills
and right now we're able to get it down
to not even a pill for most patients
that includes Cox I had absolutely no
pain I'm thoroughly impressed and I
didn't have to touch one hope yet I mean
I was given a prescription of oxycottons
I didn't
take one of them I had less pain after
the surgery than before the surgery it
was pretty amazing
he hopes the study will encourage other
doctors to reconsider their approach to
post-surgery pain I think everybody
should be trying to get on board with
this and I think it'll help a lot of
people out if it was gonna be like this
I wouldn't put it off for so long now
this is currently a pilot study at
Ascension Crittenden Hospital but from
here the doctors hope to take it to a
multicenter study and they've already
had interest from surgeons in other
states and just as a measure of how much
they believe in it they are now using it
with all of their patients not just the
ones that qualify for the study yeah
really important because as much as
we've talked about people being
overprescribed things to people with
legitimate pain issues who are afraid to
treat it that's exactly it and it's
keeping some people from having
necessary surgeries and procedures
because they don't want to fall victim
to pain problems sure all right