“…We chose to schedule the first follow-up at 2 weeks because it has previously been shown that more than half of unscheduled pain-related contacts occur within the first 2 weeks after surgery. 6 The postoperative questionnaires contained questions about pain intensity of back/neck and radicular pain in the past week (average NRS 0-100), consumption of opioids and other analgesics (drug name and dose [from 8 am to 8 am ], reasons for consumption [back/neck pain, radicular pain, other pain, other reason]), pain-related contacts to primary and/or secondary healthcare system (yes/no, reasons for contact [counselling/information, withdrawal symptoms, side effects, increased pain, prescription renewal, other, patients in the intervention group were instructed not to report the scheduled telephone counselling as a pain-related contact; only recorded after 2 weeks]), patient satisfaction with pain treatment (very satisfied, satisfied, neither satisfied nor dissatisfied, dissatisfied, very dissatisfied; only recorded after 2 weeks), symptoms possibly related to withdrawal (restlessness, shivering, muscle tension, leg cramps, shaking, stomachache, diarrhea, sweating, general discomfort, yes-[≥1 either symptoms], no-[0 symptoms] dichotomous outcome), and pain intensity (average NRS 0-100 back/neck and radicular pain in the past week) (Supplementary Fig. 2, supplemental digital content, available at http://links.lww.com/PAIN/B465).…”