LAUSR

with larger opioid prescriptions were simply more likely to use more medication to control pain rather than nonopioid medication. However, our study found that patients at all levels of opioid prescription had leftover medication, suggesting that opioid use was proportional to the prescription. We did not collect data on nonopioid medications; however, it has previously been shown that this does in fact result in less opioid use.5 Regarding our pain scale, patients were asked to rate their average pain in the first week after surgery on a scale that included 4 categories: no pain, minimal pain, moderate pain, and severe pain. As expected, a higher patient-reported pain level was associated with higher opioid consumption. Again, it would be worthwhile to examine how this interacts with other factors, such as preoperative opioid use, prescription size, and other patient factors. Future work is indeed aimed at examining these relationships. A better understanding of this interplay will allow surgeons to better tailor our prescribing practices to maximize patient safety and satisfaction. Despite the inherent limitations of existing retrospective data, we believe these steps are important in empowering surgeons to make an impact in the ongoing opioid crisis.