Across Sweden, where more than a million adults had operations between 2018 and 2022, a small share of patients found that their need for pain relief did not end when their wounds healed. Claes Gedda, working within Karolinska Institutet, traced this quiet continuation and found that nearly three in every hundred surgical patients were still collecting opioids in the months after recovery should have been well under way. The finding matters less for its percentage than for what it multiplies into, a steady trickle of people whose medicine has outlived its purpose, and it invites the harder que
Swedish Study Finds 2.8% of Surgery Patients Keep Collecting Opioids Months After Operations
About 7,000 patients a year in Sweden continue collecting opioids long after expected recovery from surgery, exposing them to dependence and overdose risks.
Collecting again in the second quarter of recovery is the signal
Mark
So what's the headline number here?
Mimi
Out of 1,245,211 adults operated on in Sweden between 2018 and 2022, 35,132 kept collecting opioids in both the first three months and months four to six. That's 2.82 per cent.
Mark
Why does it matter that they excluded people who'd used opioids before?
Mimi
Because it isolates new use. They only included patients who hadn't collected opioids for most of the year before surgery, so the continued use starts with the operation.
Luke
Worth being careful, though. "Collecting" means picking up a prescription. It's not the same as confirmed taking, or confirmed dependence.
Mimi
Fair. The source frames the risk as dependence and overdose, but the measure itself is collection.
Mark
And the 7,000 a year figure?
Mimi
That's Gedda's own translation of the 2.82 per cent into annual numbers for Sweden. It's his estimate, not a separate count.
Luke
Right, and we don't know from this what drives it. The thesis looked at risk factors and at reducing use after major surgery, but the details of those findings aren't given here.
Mark
So what can we say for sure?
Mimi
That a measurable group continues past the expected recovery window, and that it's large enough to be about 7,000 people a year.
Luke
And that the answers on who and how to reduce it are still to be read in the thesis.
O Pulso
- Of 1,245,211 Swedish adults operated on between 2018 and 2022, 35,132 were still collecting opioids in months four to six.
- That 2.82 per cent rate translates into roughly 7,000 patients a year whose pain medication has continued well past expected recovery.
- Each of those patients faces rising exposure to dependence and overdose, a risk that quietly grows with every additional month of use.
- Researchers screened out people who were already regular opioid users, so the continued prescriptions trace back to the operations themselves.
- The thesis now turns to identifying who is most vulnerable and whether post-major-surgery prescribing can be pulled back before harm sets in.
Across Sweden, where more than a million adults had operations between 2018 and 2022, a small share of patients found that their need for pain relief did not end when their wounds healed. Claes Gedda, working within Karolinska Institutet, traced this quiet continuation and found that nearly three in every hundred surgical patients were still collecting opioids in the months after recovery should have been well under way. The finding matters less for its percentage than for what it multiplies into, a steady trickle of people whose medicine has outlived its purpose, and it invites the harder question of who these patients are and whether their path can be redirected.
In Sweden, 1,245,211 adults had operations between 2018 and 2022. Of them, 35,132 kept returning to the pharmacy for opioids long after the surgery itself was behind them. That is 2.82 per cent, and it forms the central finding of a doctoral thesis by Claes Gedda at Danderyd Hospital, part of Karolinska Institutet.
The thesis does not argue against opioids for severe post-operative pain, which work well when they are needed. Its concern is what happens when use keeps going. Prolonged use brings known dangers, including dependence and overdose, and Gedda set out to measure how common this continuation is, who is most affected, and whether it can be reduced.
The study excluded patients who were already regular users before surgery, so any opioid use that followed could be linked to the operation. Persistence was defined narrowly: collecting opioids both in the first three months and again in months four to six. Early use is expected; renewed use in the second quarter is the sign that something has carried on past the point of healing.
In annual terms, Gedda estimates around 7,000 people a year in Sweden are still collecting opioids long after they should have recovered. The thesis also examines risk factors and possible interventions, though the details of those findings are contained in the full work rather than the summary.
Among the 1,245,211 adults in Sweden who had an operation between 2018 and 2022, 35,132 kept going back to the pharmacy for opioids long after the surgery was behind them. That is 2.82 per cent of the group, and it is the central finding of a doctoral thesis by Claes Gedda of the Department of Clinical Sciences at Danderyd Hospital, part of Karolinska Institutet.
Opioids are effective medicines for severe pain after surgery, and the thesis does not dispute that. The concern is what happens when use continues. Prolonged use carries known risks, among them dependence and overdose. Gedda set out to establish how common continued use is among surgical patients in Sweden, which patients are more likely to be affected, and whether opioid use after major surgery can be brought down.
The largest of his studies drew on the 1.2 million adults who were operated on in the five-year window. The researchers kept only patients who had not collected opioids for most of the year before their operation. That choice matters, because it screens out people who were already regular users. Whatever opioid use appeared afterward was therefore new, tied to the operation rather than to an existing prescription pattern.
The measure of persistence was specific. A patient counted only if they collected opioids in the first three months after surgery and again in months four to six. Some early use is expected after an operation. Collecting again in the second quarter of recovery is the signal that something has continued past the point where most patients would have healed. By that definition, 35,132 people qualified.
Gedda puts that proportion into annual terms: it corresponds to around 7,000 patients each year in Sweden who are still collecting opioids long after they should have recovered from surgery. Each of those people is exposed to the risks of dependence and overdose that the thesis describes.
Beyond the headline rate, the thesis addresses two further questions: which patients face higher risk, and whether opioid use following major surgery can be reduced. The summary of the work available here does not spell out the specific risk factors or the interventions tested, so those details sit in the thesis itself.
What the figures establish is scale. A rate under 3 per cent sounds small, but applied to more than a million operations it becomes tens of thousands of people. The next thing to watch is the thesis's findings on who is most at risk and what lowers it, since those are the parts that clinicians could act on.
Citações Notáveis
The figure corresponds to around 7,000 patients per year in Sweden who collect opioids long after they should have recovered from surgery.— Claes Gedda, Department of Clinical Sciences, Danderyd Hospital, Karolinska Institutet
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