Assessing Suzetrigine for Pain Reduction Following Ureteroscopic Surgery

Overview

Urologic surgery has advanced with new technologies to allow less invasive management of common afflictions such as kidney stones, these procedures are notoriously painful as the ureter must be dilated to accommodate any instruments, and a ureteral stent is often left following surgery to allow for adequate healing. Unfortunately, stents are poorly tolerated by a significant number of patients, with up to 100% complaining of bothersome pain and 10% of patients with unplanned healthcare visits. Further complicating kidney stone management is the frequency of concurrent chronic kidney disease (CKD) or acute kidney injury (AKI) that prohibits many patients from taking NSAIDs which limits pain management options. There is now a push to treat these patients with multimodal analgesia to provide better care and reduce opioid use. Suzetrigine is a new a first-in-class selective inhibitor of the NaV1.8 sodium channel that functions as a non-opioid analgesic developed to treat acute pain and neuropathic pain. This study assesses the addition of suzetrigine to standard-of-care multimodal analgesia. We hypothesize a demonstrated decrease in opioid use, decrease Emergency Room visits within 30 days, decrease the number of unplanned care encounters.

Urologic surgery has advanced with new technologies to allow less invasive management of common afflictions such as kidney stones, these procedures are notoriously painful as the ureter must be dilated to accommodate any instruments, and a ureteral stent is often left following surgery to allow for adequate healing. Unfortunately, stents are poorly tolerated by a significant number of patients, with up to 100% complaining of bothersome pain and 10% of patients with unplanned healthcare visits. Further complicating kidney stone management is the frequency of concurrent chronic kidney disease (CKD) or acute kidney injury (AKI) that prohibits many patients from taking NSAIDs which limits pain management options. There is now a push to treat these patients with multimodal analgesia to provide better care and reduce opioid use. Suzetrigine is a new a first-in-class selective inhibitor of the NaV1.8 sodium channel that functions as a non-opioid analgesic developed to treat acute pain and neuropathic pain. This study assesses the addition of suzetrigine to standard-of-care multimodal analgesia. We hypothesize a demonstrated decrease in opioid use, decrease Emergency Room visits within 30 days, decrease the number of unplanned care encounters. This prospective open-label interventional single-center study will compare 30-day postoperative patient reported outcomes and pain medication use between a pre-implementation cohort of patients managed with standard-of-care multimodal analgesia after ureteroscopy with a post-implementation cohort of patient with this regimen and addition of suzetrigine. The primary outcome will be opioid usage after discharge with standard of care multimodal analgesia (historical control) vs opioid usage after discharge with suzetrigine included with the standard of care multimodal analgesia regimen (intervention). Secondary outcomes will include unplanned care encounters within 30 days (Emergency Room, unplanned clinic visits) and surveyed patient reported outcomes measured on a post-operative survey including PROMIS (Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System) questions as well as an end of study administration of WISQOL (The Wisconsin Stone Quality of Life Questionnaire). The study will be conducted within a single academic institution including the primary hospital (Brigham and Women's Hospital) and satellite sites (Brigham and Women's Faulkner Hospital).