July 29, 2022

According to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) National Survey on Drug Use and Health, 9.7 million people misused prescription pain relievers in 2019. With an opioid crisis still looming large, appropriate postoperative pain management is an important consideration for every podiatric surgeon.

During Friday's Breakfast Symposium 2: Postoperative Patient and Pain Management, Michelle Butterworth, DPM, and Daniel Hatch, DPM, will tackle this complex topic. The speakers will discuss effective pain management and alternatives to opioids and will also examine how podiatrists can mitigate risk in dealing with postoperative patients.

“We’ll give physicians a variety of options to avoid the use of opioids,” said Dr. Hatch, “We will cover multimodal pain management options, and attendees will take home pearls for dealing with opioid utilization.”

Dr. Butterworth will share advice on minimizing legal risk with surgical patients.  “Documentation in the medical record is so important,” she said. “I’ll provide risk management recommendations including pre-operative assessment, setting patient goals, identifying risk factors such as comorbidities, and documentation pearls.”

“This will be a great session on pain management issues and the medicolegal ramifications,” Dr. Hatch concluded.

 To read more from The National Today, check out the full issue!