I.V. acetaminophen may reduce hospital length of stay in adolescents undergoing posterior spinal fusion

A prospective study focused on the impact of I.V. acetaminophen under the setting of posterior spinal fusion surgery in an adolescent population. The investigation included 114 participants aged 10–18 years, all of whom received patient-controlled analgesia and adjuvant therapy. Among them, 70 received I.V. acetaminophen while 44 did not. The control patients were under anesthesia for a longer period of time and required greater amounts of remifentanil. The I.V. acetaminophen recipients, meanwhile, were discharged from the hospital sooner—which may have reduced their opioid consumption. The results, published in the Clinical Journal of Pain, also documented a negative correlation between I.V. acetaminophen and morphine requirement, which significantly prolonged hospital stay. The strength of the findings was reduced by the nonrandomized, observational nature of the study and the fact that the two patient cohorts differed according to surgery duration, ketorolac administration, and remifentanil doses.