Ambulatory surgery without excess opioids
Toward Opioid-Free Ambulatory Surgery (TOFAS) is a study led by The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center’s Division of General and Gastrointestinal Surgery and funded by the Care Innovation and Community Improvement Program to investigate the effectiveness of pain management without opioids for same-day or ambulatory surgery patients.
The goal is to assess whether a new standard of pain management—one which does not involve sending patients home with prescribed opioids—can provide adequate control of pain, thus reducing risk of opioid abuse.
Study significance
Approximately 40% – 50% of current opioid prescriptions are not finished. This leaves tremendous potential for abuse of and addiction to these medications within a patient’s household and community.
Because ambulatory operations are very common, this research includes a large patient population who may be currently unaware of opioid-free alternatives for postoperative pain control.
If successful, the TOFAS study could lead to important new protocols that minimize or eliminate excess opioid use and have direct impact on the nation’s efforts to reduce opioid abuse and addiction.
Who is eligible?
Patients undergoing select ambulatory procedures in General and GI, Surgical Oncology, Trauma, and Vascular Surgery may be eligible to participate.
- Participants will be in the study from the time they consent until 30 days after their surgery.
- The three-year study itself will run into 2023.
Referral/Recruitment
Patients or providers interested in study participation can contact one of our TOFAS study coordinators:
- Savannah Renshaw at savannah.renshaw@osumc.edu.
- Amen An at amen.an@osumc.edu.
Principal investigators
The TOFAS study at the Ohio State Wexner Medical Center is led by:
- Benjamin Poulose, MD, MPH, chief of General and GI Surgery and co-director of the Center for Abdominal Core Health
- Michael Guertin, MD, MBA, medical director of Ambulatory Surgery Services