Dr. Howard Smith Oncall

Vidcast:  https://youtu.be/7PXOk2UMWz0   Sixty percent of children having their tonsils removed are prescribed opioids for 6 to 10 days following the surgery.  This fact comes from study by University of Michigan of nearly 16,000 children ages 1 to 18 years who underwent surgery from 2016 until 2018.   This prescribing pattern flies in the face of American Academy of Otolaryngology guidelines that suggest using NSAIDS such as ibuprofen in place of narcotics.  The study confirms that use of these addicting pain killers does not reduce post-operative hospital visits for pain or dehydration.  The data instead show that narcotics do cause painful constipation and sometimes tragic overdoses.   Having performed thousands of tonsillectomies myself during my 40 years practicing pediatric otolaryngology, I know that narcotic pain medicine can be avoided with the appropriate use of  the T&T plan: Tylenol and Twinkies, a sugar and carb-laden postoperative diet.  I also reject the use of blood-thinning NSAIDs which s