Last year, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved suzetrigine, the first in a new class of non-opioid pain management options.

HSS researchers, Alexandra Sideris, PhD, Director of the Pain Prevention Research Center and Faye Rim, MD, FAAPMR, a physiatrist and pain management specialist within the Department of Anesthesiology, Critical Care & Pain Management, are exploring suzetrigine’s limits in acute pain by testing it in hip replacement, a more complex and painful procedure than those used in the manufacturers’ trials. Their clinical trial, scheduled to run through next spring, will help determine whether giving suzetrigine before surgery keeps patients from experiencing sudden pain when their anesthesia wears off, Sideris said—and whether it also reduces their need for opioid treatment during recovery. “This is above and beyond what current literature has shown,” she shared.

Read the full article at science.org.