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Our top priority is providing value to members. Your Member Services team is here to ensure you maximize your ACS member benefits, participate in College activities, and engage with your ACS colleagues. It's all here.

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Become a member and receive career-enhancing benefits

Our top priority is providing value to members. Your Member Services team is here to ensure you maximize your ACS member benefits, participate in College activities, and engage with your ACS colleagues. It's all here.

Become a Member
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US Surgeons Prescribe More Opioids at Home than on Surgical Trips to LMICs

December 9, 2025

US Surgeons Prescribe More Opioids at Home than on Surgical Trips to LMICs

Does operating location affect postoperative pain management? The latest episode of The Operative Word podcast explores this topic through a discussion with Drs. Ziad Sifri and Matthew Linz on their recent Journal of the American College of Surgeons article. In a conversation with podcast host Dr. Tom Varghese, the authors discussed their findings that surgeons from the US prescribe significantly more opioids after inguinal hernia repair when at home compared with when they operate on short-term surgical trips to low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), despite continued efforts to reduce opioid overprescription in the US.