Advanced Inpatient Management of Opioid Use Disorder in a Patient Requiring Serial Surgeries

Abstract

Opioid use disorder has affected many lives across the US. Medications for opioid use disorder (MOUD), including buprenorphine, have been shown to decrease mortality in this patient population. Here we present a case of a 32-year-old woman on buprenorphine/naloxone undergoing multiple surgical operations, whose course included buprenorphine discontinuation, methadone initiation, and buprenorphine re-induction using a novel “microdosing” approach. This report includes a presentation of the case and a discussion of the clinical decision making and relevant literature to give hospitalbased providers a perspective on management of peri-operative patients on MOUD.