Seven in ten patients were still taking opioids three months after head and neck radiotherapy

The edition in brief

A single-institution US cohort of 789 patients treated with definitive radiation or chemoradiation for head and neck cancer found 95% received prescription opioids between diagnosis and six months after treatment; 70% were still taking them at three months and 47% at six months. Among 296 patients who were opioid-naive before radiation, 58% and 38% were still using opioids at three and six months. Prior opioid use, former smoking and palliative care referral were associated with continued use. A paediatric case series from a hospital that performed 5576 tonsillotomies and 19,834 tonsillectomies found peritonsillar abscess after tonsillotomy in 0.16% versus 0.005% after tonsillectomy, presenting a mean of eight years later. In 1187 patients having radiotherapy for head and neck cancer, higher BMI was associated with better survival, but CT analysis showed skeletal muscle was the protective component (HR 0.67) and intermuscular fat was linked to higher mortality (HR 1.28). The pearl covers sudden sensorineural hearing loss.