DeMik DE, et al. - The present study was undertaken to investigate postoperative opioid use with preoperative opioid and tramadol use. Researchers distinguished a total of 107,973 individuals undergoing total knee arthroplasty (TKA) in the Humana administrative claims database. Individuals were stratified by whether they filled a prescription for an opioid, tramadol, either, or neither within 3 months of TKA. For 12 months, prescription claims were tracked postoperatively and for each group, relative risk was estimated. The results of this study suggested that, preoperatively, individuals taking tramadol were seen to be at lower risk for prolonged postoperative opioid use following TKA. The data indicated that individuals taking either narcotics preoperatively continued use of these medications at a higher rate than those who were not.