Sixty percent of privately insured children undergoing tonsil removal received opioids –with average prescriptions lasting about six to 10 days – a new study finds.

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And while the more powerful painkillers are often prescribed because they’ve been believed to reduce the risk of complications, such as poorly controlled pain, researchers didn’t find evidence indicating that opioids protected children against those risks.

The Michigan Medicine study appears in the journal of JAMA Otolaryngology.

“Our findings suggest that it may be possible to reduce opioid exposure among children who undergo this common surgery without increasing the risk of complications,” says lead author Kao-Ping Chua, M.D., Ph.D., a researcher and pediatrician at University of Michigan C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital.

Researchers analyzed national data between 2016 and 2017 from a private insurance database. Among 15,793 children (ages 1 to 18) who underwent a tonsillectomy, six in 10 had one or more filled opioid prescription.

Opportunities to reduce opioid prescriptions in kids

Tonsillectomy is one of the most common surgical procedures performed in children. The American Academy of Otolaryngology guidelines strongly recommend using non-opioids, such as nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), like ibuprofen, for these procedures.