Key findings:

• The more than 1,000 patients in the study received a median of 95 mg of morphine equivalent in the first 24 hours.

• Despite these high doses of opioids, 57% of patients still experienced poorly controlled pain (NRS > 4) on the first day.

• Poor pain control was independently associated with nearly two additional days in hospital, even after correcting for adverse events, surgical technique, and other relevant factors.

• Overall, the average length of stay in the hospital was 4.8 days.

These are some of the conclusions from newly published work by the Section of Neurosurgery at the University of Calgary, confirming once again the massive negative impact of poor pain control on recovery. With more than a million low back surgeries performed every year in Europe and the US, the results show how central good pain management is to early recovery, and how much room there still is to improve.

This is exactly why SentryX is developing surgical pain blockers with ILA-technology: to treat postoperative pain at its source, without opioids, for the first days after surgery. With this solution, the aim is for patients to leave the hospital much earlier to work on their recovery at home, saving hospitals and healthcare systems billions each year, and helping to prevent chronic postsurgical pain and opioid addiction.

Major congratulations to all co-authors on this important piece of work.