Retrospective analysis compares postoperative opioid use in endoscopic versus open lumbar discectomy, suggesting lower usage with endoscopic technique.
In this retrospective analysis, endoscopic lumbar discectomy was associated with lower short-term postoperative opioid utilization while conferring clinical outcomes similar to those of traditional open microdiscectomy. These results are limited by individual variation in opioid-prescribing practices by individual center, and future studies with standardized opioid-prescription protocols will improve the external validity of these findings.
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Ansari et al. (2026) studied this question.
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