Anesthesiology
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Opioids form an important component of general anesthesia and perioperative analgesia. Discharge opioid prescriptions are identified as a contributor for persistent opioid use and diversion. ⋯ The data indicate that opioid-free strategies, however noble in their cause, do not fully acknowledge the limitations and gaps within the existing evidence and clinical practice considerations. Moreover, they do not allow analgesic titration based on patient needs; are unclear about optimal components and their role in different surgical settings and perioperative phases; and do not serve to decrease the risk of persistent opioid use, thereby distracting us from optimizing pain and minimizing realistic long-term harms.
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Preoperative frailty is strongly associated with postoperative complications and mortality. However, the pathways between frailty, postoperative complications, and mortality are poorly described. The authors hypothesized that the occurrence of postoperative complications would mediate a substantial proportion of the total effect of frailty on mortality after elective noncardiac surgery. ⋯ Complications mediate more than half of the association between frailty and postoperative mortality in elective noncardiac surgery.