Post-Tonsillectomy Bleeding and Analgesic Use Before and After the FDA Boxed Warning Against Codeine

Objective: The aim of this study was to investigate the trends in post-tonsillectomy analgesic utility and incidence of post-tonsillectomy hemorrhage before and after the 2013 FDA Boxed Warning against codeine use after pediatric tonsillectomy. Methods: A retrospective study was conducted using TriNetX. A search for patients up to 18 years from 2008 to 2022 within the US Collaborative Network identified 15,648,542 subjects. CPT and ICD-10 codes were used to identify children who experienced post-tonsillectomy hemorrhage within 14 days of a tonsillectomy. Analgesics given within 14 days of tonsillectomy were tabulated annually from 2008 to 2022, including codeine, ibuprofen, acetaminophen, oxycodone, ketorolac, and hydrocodone. Bleeding percentage and analgesic utility were grouped into events before and after 2013. Results: Mean age at tonsillectomy was 5.6 years (SD = 3.0). Before 2013, the median percentage of children who experienced postoperative bleeding was 1.8% with 0.73% returning to the OR for bleeding control. After 2013, the median percentage of children who experienced postoperative bleeding was 2.4% (p = 0.029), and 0.99% returned to the OR (p = 0.008). Use of post-tonsillectomy codeine fell from 10.4% to 0.5% (p = 0.003) whereas ibuprofen rose from 2.0% to 63.9% (p = <0.001), acetaminophen from 42.8% to 77.2% (p = <0.001), ketorolac from 1.2% to 9.2% (p = <0.001), and oxycodone from 2.0% to 30.9% (p = <0.001). No change was detected in use of hydrocodone. Conclusion: Analgesics used post-tonsillectomy in children have changed since the FDA Boxed Warning against codeine. There has been a small but statistically significant increase in post-tonsillectomy bleeding.