The OPI•AID Zone Tool as a composite outcome for postoperative pain management quality—A protocol for an observational pilot study

Background

Managing postoperative pain while minimizing opioid‐related adverse drug events (ORADEs) remains a significant challenge. The OPI•AID Zone Tool is proposed as a novel clinical decision support tool that ‐ both graphically and in a scoring‐system ‐ represents the relationship between pain management and the occurrence of ORADEs, aiming to enhance patient outcomes in postoperative care. The OPI•AID Zone Tool places pain score on the x‐axis and an ORADE score on the y‐axis, and stratifies patients into five zones to reflect the composite impact of pain severity and ORADEs on the quality of postoperative patient care. The study will have two key aims: (1) to explore whether the OPI•AID Zone Tool can function as a composite outcome measure for postoperative pain and ORADEs, and (2) to evaluate the use of the OPI•AID Zone Tool in visual presentations and for evaluation of patients’ postoperative pain management quality.

Methods

This prospective observational cohort study will include 200 adults undergoing various surgical procedures in general anesthesia with a subsequent stay in the post‐anesthesia care unit (PACU) at Bispebjerg Hospital, Denmark.

Substudy 1 primary outcome: To assess whether a zone score in the OPI•AID Zone Tool is associated with patient‐perceived health (EQ VAS), quality of recovery (QoR‐PACU), and time to discharge readiness in PACU, and if the zone score has a stronger association than pain and ORADE score in themselves.

Substudy 2 primary outcome: To assess how the use of intraoperative non‐opioid analgesics impact where patients are placed in the OPI•AID Zone Tool's XY scatterplot right after surgery.

To assess if patients who receive more comprehensive non‐opioid analgesic basic regimens, generally fall into lower zones.

Conclusion

The OPI•AID Zone Tool could potentially be a valuable clinical decision‐making tool for optimizing postoperative care by simultaneously addressing pain management and the risk of ORADEs. By computing a composite measure of these two critical outcomes, the tool could guide more nuanced and patient‐centered analgesic regimens, potentially improving patient satisfaction and operational efficiency in postoperative settings. The tool's applicability will be explored in this observational pilot and followed up in a planned series of studies (opiaid.dk).