The California Workers' Compensation Institute, a carrier-supported organization, has drawn attention to a new study published in Spine magazine (abstract linked below) which calls into question the use of certain prescription pain medications following back surgery.
The study deals with back surgery patients in Washington state between January 1994 and December 2001.
It outlines the mortality rates for spinal fusion subjects from all causes and notes that, although death from opioid pain medication poisoning was relatively low, since instances occurred more frequently in younger patients, TOTAL years lost from pain-medication deaths really amounted to a rate as high as 31%.
This - CWCI argues - adds fuel to its position opposing newly proposed medical treatment guidelines posted by the DWC, which the organization argues is too vague in describing when such medications should be used for "chronic pain" - and would thus lead to greater use of such drugs.
To read the CWCI's copyrighted article on the study,
→
CLICK HERE.
To read the copyrighted abstract of the article in Spine,
→
CLICK HERE.
To read our earlier article outlinine CWCI's positon, plus the proposed regs,
→
CLICK HERE.
