A Successful Opioid-Free Anesthetic in a Patient Undergoing Cardiac Surgery

Abstract The negative side effects of opioids have been well documented, and as our nation faces an opioid addiction crisis, the morbidity and mortality associated with opioids continues to rise dramatically. However, the majority of anesthesiologists are continuing to administer high doses of opioids to patients undergoing both non-cardiac and cardiac surgery. Opioid-free anesthesia (OFA) is a technique in which non-opioid multimodal analgesics are used to provide adequate pain control both during surgery and postoperatively. While there are several studies that demonstrate the effectiveness of OFA in patients undergoing non-cardiac surgery, it has not been studied in patients undergoing cardiac surgery. The authors present a case of successful implementation of an OFA regimen in a patient with opioid-induced mastocytosis undergoing an open aortic valve replacement (AVR).