Mayer MN, et al. - Authors investigated 152 individuals to explore the influence of chronic preoperative narcotic use on early postoperative pain relief, narcotic use, length of hospital stay, readmissions, and complications in cases with primary total shoulder arthroplasty (TSA). They observed that 27 participants were chronic preoperative narcotic users and 125 were not. With regard to age, gender, laterality, or body mass index, they did not observe statistically significant differences between groups. They found that chronic narcotic users had significantly higher visual analog scores and a significantly higher cumulative narcotic demand at 6 and 12 wk. As compared to that in narcotic-naive patients, chronic preoperative narcotic use was defined as a risk factor for a more complicated postoperative course following TSA.