Evaluation of Early Postoperative Intravenous Opioid Rescue as a Novel Quality Measure in Patients who Receive Thoracic Epidural Analgesia: A Retrospective Cohort Analysis and Prospective Performance Improvement Intervention

Abstract

Background: In this study, we explored the prevalence of intravenous opioid rescue analgesia in the post-anesthesia care unit (PACU-OpResc) as a single marker of thoracic epidural analgesia (TEA) failure and evaluated the resource implications and quality improvement applications of this measure. Methods: We performed a retrospective analysis of all TEA placements during 2016-2018 at a single academic medical center in Boston, Massachusetts. The study exposure was the need for intravenous opioid rescue analgesia in the PACU (PACU-OpResc). Primary outcome was PACU length of stay (LOS). Secondary outcomes included delayed PACU discharge and intraoperative hypotension. The analyses were adjusted for confounding variables including patient comorbidities, surgical complexity, intraoperative intravenous opioids, chronic opioid use and local anesthetic bolus through TEA catheter. Post analysis chart review was conducted to determine the positive predictive value (PPV) of PACU-OpResc for inadequate TEA. As a first Plan-Do-Study-Act cycle, we then introduced a checkbox for documentation of a sensory level check (SLC) after TEA placement. Post implementation data was collected for 7 months. Results: PACU-OpResc was required by 211 (22.1%) patients who received preoperative TEA, was associated with longer PACU LOS (incidence rate ratio 1.20, 95% CI:1.07–1.34, p=0.001) and delayed discharge due to inadequate pain control (odds ratio 5.15, 95% CI 3.51–7.57, p<0.001). PACU-OpResc had a PPV of 76.3% and 60.4% for re-evaluation and manipulation of the TEA catheter in PACU, respectively. Following implementation of a checkbox, average monthly compliance with documented SLCs after TEA placement was noted to be 39.7%. During this time, a reduction of 8.2% in the rate of PACU-OpResc was observed.Conclusions: This study demonstrates that PACU-OpResc can be used as a quality assurance measure or surrogate for TEA efficiency, to track performance and monitor innovation efforts aimed at improving analgesia, such as our intervention to facilitate SLCs and reduced PACU-OpResc.