Perioperative Systemic Acetaminophen to Improve Postoperative Quality of Recovery After Ambulatory Breast Surgery

Recent evidence demonstrates that perioperative pain continues to be poorly managed among ambulatory surgical patients. More importantly, few interventions that minimize postoperative pain have also shown to improve patient overall quality of post-surgical recovery. Ketorolac has been used to minimize perioperative pain despite the lack of evidence for its use when administered as a single dose preventive strategy.Ketorolac has also been associated with a higher incidence of perioperative hematomas and the need for surgical re-exploration after breast surgery. Systemic acetaminophen has become recently available in The United States. In contrast to ketorolac, systemic acetaminophen has not been reported to have adverse side effects on patients undergoing breast surgery. Although evidence suggests that a single dose perioperative acetaminophen reduces postoperative pain, it remains unknown if a single dose intravenous acetaminophen improves postoperative quality of recovery after ambulatory surgery. The main objective of the current investigation is to evaluate the effect of a single dose systemic acetaminophen on postoperative quality of recovery after ambulatory breast surgery. We also seek to determine if systemic acetaminophen would decrease postoperative pain and the time to hospital discharge in the same population. Significance: The current project evaluates a potential intervention to improve perioperative pain and recovery after ambulatory breast surgery. Postoperative pain in the ambulatory surgical patients has been shown consistently to be poorly managed.