Revolutionizing Post-Operative Pain Relief With Long-Term Analgesics

Although opioids are a widely used pain management option, they lead to over a hundred thousand addiction-related deaths per year. There is a dire need for a long-acting, opioid-free pain management treatment. Post-surgical pain typically lasts longer than the current longest-acting opioid-free analgesic. Therefore, this project focuses on creating a drug delivery system that releases analgesics for 168 hours. The drug delivery system is made from biodegradable polymers, poly(lactic-co-glycolic) acid (PLGA), and poly(beta-amino ester). On their own, PBAE or PLGA results in a very high initial release. However, the combination of PBAE and PLGA results in slower, sustained therapeutic levels of analgesic release. This solution would eliminate the need for opioid prescriptions altogether to manage pain in the initial stages of surgical recovery, therefore reducing the overall addictions developed and subsequent opioid- related deaths.