Traven SA, Brinton DL, Woolf SK, et al. - The present study was performed to assess nationwide trends and regional variability in opioid prescriptions after common orthopedic procedures. Researchers performed a retrospective analysis of privately insured individuals from the MarketScan database between 2015 and 2016. They examined median oral morphine equivalents and interquartile ranges by region for the initial post-op prescriptions and 90-day total prescriptions for opioid-naive patients undergoing the following: carpal tunnel release; anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction; arthroscopic meniscectomy; bimalleolar ankle fracture open reduction and internal fixation; distal radius fracture open reduction and internal fixation; arthroscopic rotator cuff repair; single-level anterior cervical discectomy and fusion; and total shoulder, hip, and knee arthroplasties. They distinguished 73,991 opioid-naive patients. For many common orthopedic procedures, notable regional variability exists in opioid prescribing patterns. It was shown that prescriptions were the smallest in the region most affected by the opioid epidemic. This study’s findings demonstrate that this information can be applied to re-assess recommendations, serve as a benchmark for surgeons, and develop institutional and quality improvement guidelines to reduce excess postoperative opioid prescriptions.