Mitigating the Shadow of the Worldwide Opioid Crisis: A Review for the Foot and Ankle Specialist

Abstract

The foot and ankle physician is no stranger to the difficulties in achieving optimal pain therapy. There remains much confusion and conflicting information available to nonspecialist prescribers regarding opioid therapy as well as great deal of fear or opiophobia during the prescribing and monitoring of opioids worldwide. The role of the lower extremity specialist provider is to responsibly provide pain management to their patients in an error-free environment. The purpose of this article is to explore the central theme of responsible opioid pain management worldwide. This review focuses on the prescribing strategies of opioid analgesics to treat lower-extremity pain. Pharmacology of opioid agents and opioid prescribing strategies will be presented. Then, the concept of multimodal pain relief criteria for selecting appropriate opioid analgesics and use of adjunctive therapies to prevent opioid misuse as presented in the current medical literature is reported. Finally, a commentary and discussion centered on the actions of pharmaceutical companies of promoting their opioid products and the negative outcomes of their actions in the United States that may go worldwide if behaviors of these companies are not recognized by the foot and ankle specialist.