Sixty percent of privately insured children undergoing tonsil removal received opioids –with average prescriptions lasting about six to 10 days – a new study finds.
And while the more powerful painkillers are often prescribed because they have been believed to reduce the risk of complications such as poorly controlled pain, researchers did not find evidence indicating that opioids protected children against those risks.
The Michigan Medicine study appears in the journal JAMA Otolaryngology-Head & Neck Surgery.
