The opioid epidemic and its impact on orthopaedic care
Friday, May 8, 2015 - 02:30
in Health & Medicine
The United States makes up less than five percent of the world's population but consumes 80 percent of the global opioid supply and approximately 99 percent of all hydrocodone--the most commonly prescribed opioid in the world. And, according to the authors of a new literature review in the May issue of The Journal of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons, orthopaedic surgeons are the third highest prescribers of opioid prescriptions among physicians in the United States--behind primary care physicians and internists.