Dasinger EA, et al. - In view of the common occurrence of opioid-related adverse drug events after inpatient surgical procedures, researchers assessed opioid prescribing following outpatient surgical procedures and its influence on short-term risks of outpatient surgical adverse events (AEs). They used VA Corporate Data Warehouse to recognize opioid use within 48 hours for FY2012-2014 chart-reviewed cases from a larger VA study of AEs in outpatient surgeries. They identified 1,730 outpatient surgical cases. Among these, postoperative opioid use was noted in 628 (36%) and an AE was encountered in 12%. Findings revealed no significant association of opioid use following outpatient surgery with higher surgical AE rates after controlling for relevant covariates. Only procedure RVUs were noted to be associated with higher odds of postoperative AEs.