Kurtis Biggs, DO, an orthopedic surgeon and founder of the Joint Replacement Institute in Naples, Fla., hasn’t written an opioid prescription since July 2025.
The achievement is part of his larger efforts to reduce opioid use in patients after surgery, Dr. Biggs said on “Becker’s Spine and Orthopedic Podcast.” When it came to developing his strategy, he credited studies from orthopedic surgeon Andrew Wickline, MD, who works in New Hartford, N.Y.
“[Dr. Wickline is] phenomenal as far as pushing these types of changes across the board,” Dr. Biggs said. “His studies in swelling and the elimination of opioids and limiting activity have made a big difference. There’s a group of us called March 2 a Million that is trying to encourage everybody to get to total joint cases that need less than 10 pills per episode.”
In Florida, the average oxycodone count for a total knee patient after surgery is 120 pills, Dr. Biggs said. He said that orthopedic surgeons can explore opioid-sparing protocols to be part of the solution in a larger opioid epidemic.
Dr. Biggs’ fleet of resources to support patient recovery spans from preoperative icing and iovera and trying new blocs and medications intraoperatively.
“Postoperatively, I’m using compression sleeves, ice machines and supplements,” he said. “These include protein supplements, amino acids. I’m using biologics, such as bone marrow aspiration concentrations, and I’m utilizing hesperidin and diosamin with Dr. Wickline’s research on that, it really helps reduce the swelling and inflammation.”
Dr. Biggs also has given patients step counters to monitor activity, Germanics and CBD. Collectively these measures have been a game-changer for his work.
“I rarely have a patient rate above 3 on a pain scale with knee replacement for their entire recovery process, and that’s been great for both them and us as practitioners,” Dr. Biggs said.
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