HealthDay News reports on a HSS study that found duloxetine cuts opioid use compared with placebo after surgery, presented by researcher Danya A. DeMeo and colleagues at the Annual Regional Anesthesiology and Acute Pain Medicine (ASRA) Meeting.

DeMeo and colleagues randomly assigned 160 patients undergoing primary total knee arthroplasty to either duloxetine or placebo for 14 days. Opioid medication consumption and pain with ambulation after surgery were evaluated on postoperative days 1, 2, 7, and 14.

The researchers found that duloxetine was both noninferior and superior to placebo for cumulative opioid consumption (294 mg with duloxetine versus 432 mg with placebo).

Read the full article at HealthDay.com.