Preoperative Acetaminophen Use in Hysterectomy to Reduce Postoperative Opioid Consumption

Background: Hysterectomy is a common surgery amongst females and is occasionally considered a same-day outpatient surgery. There is a lack of adequate postoperative pain control thus leading to extended use of postoperative opioid use. As a result, in addition to other postoperative side effects, patients suffer from adverse side effects of opioid use, including sedation, respiratory depression, constipation, nausea, and pruritus. This indirectly prolongs patients’ hospital stay and recovery. There have been recent studies suggesting non-opioids, such as acetaminophen, could decrease opioid use postoperatively. The aim of this review is to evaluate whether preoperative acetaminophen use will decrease postoperative opioid use within the first 24-hours after a hysterectomy. Methods: An exhaustive literature search of available medical literature was performed using MEDLINEOvid, Web of Science, and CINAHL-Ebscohost.