Trends in Chronic Opioid Use Around Inpatient Surgery Within the Veterans Health Administration

In a large national sample within a managed care organization, incident long-term opioid therapy (LTOT) after surgery occurred inapproximately6% of preoperatively opioid-naive patients between 2013 and 2014. Because veterans have more chronic pain than the general population, incident LTOT may be more common within the Veterans Health Administration (VHA). We sought to examine incident postoperative LTOT and incident postoperative cessation of opioid use between 2000 and 2016 within the VHA, a time frame spanning the prescription opioid epidemic.